The Temporal Axis
by Simon Pilkington
Summary: Ritsu's forgetfulness gets her into trouble once again. Seeking to fix things, Yui and the drummer encounter something that will mess up their schedule quite a bit. Yui and Ritsu friendship fic, implied "canon" pairings and some more.
1. Time's Arrow

_A/N_: Greetings, this is the first thing I've written in years (everything prior to this being terrible), so your mileage may definitely vary, however I'd dare say that I put at least some effort into this so if at all possible, give it a chance.

There are three main characters to this story: Yui, Ritsu and a third person that is not ready to be revealed yet, it is however a canon character. There will be no explicit romance, but there will be enough implications, much like in the original work.

The story itself is heavily inspired by Back to the Future as well as Steins;Gate, and so some similarities will be apparent, however even those that have seen either of those works should not lose any enjoyment of this story, provided that they enjoy the genre.

Shout-out to TastyChainsaws for beta-reading, he may be evil, but like Hannibal Lecter, he's quite pleasant otherwise. Look at his stories if you dare, his profile is in my favorites.

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><p><strong>THE TEMPORAL AXIS<strong>

**Chapter 1 – Time's arrow**

It was cold that day, so cold that some people might say that it would be preferable to stay at school than to endure the trek home. The school in question, Sakuragaoka High School, is where the story begins. In the school's music room.

Hirasawa Yui was a third year student and a member of the Light Music Club, she played lead guitar and was also in part responsible for the vocals in their band, Afterschool Tea Time. She was of average height, her hair relatively short, brown and almost always adorned with a pair of yellow hairclips; to match her hair, her eyes were also brown. Yui was the kind of girl that was perpetually optimistic and happy, she would take everything that came at her with a smile and never wither, with such a carefree way of life she would often slip into being air-headed. In somewhat of a contrast to her outlook, one of her favorite things to do was to laze around, as she was at this very moment.

Yui was sitting at a table filled with empty plates and teacups. She was surrounded by three of her band mates and closest friends: Nakano Azusa, Kotobuki Tsumugi and Akiyama Mio.

Azusa was a short twin-tailed girl with black hair and copper colored eyes; she was the band's rhythm guitarist and the biggest driving force behind any practice that the band ever got. She was a year behind the rest of the club as she had joined it after seeing the band's freshman reception concert. Azusa was often called 'Azu-nyan' by Yui, who seemed to be very fond of her.

Tsumugi, called Mugi by her friends, a nickname given by Yui, was the band's keyboardist. Her personality gentle and cheerful; her hair wavy, long and the color of wheat; her eyes like sapphires; Mugi was a wealthy girl who may have unwittingly been the cause of the club's lax atmosphere by bringing and serving her friends tea and sweets every day.

A shy, timid girl, Mio was definitely the face of Afterschool Tea Time. She played bass guitar and was also the other person responsible for vocals when she could muster the courage, but her popularity stemmed less from that and more from how extraordinarily beautiful the girl was. With raven-black long hair, stormy-gray eyes and being the tallest member of her band, few people could deny this.

The four of them had assembled in the music room, like they do every day after class, but today was special, today was Friday, January 15th 2010; Mio's eighteenth birthday. Mio's friends had all kept quiet throughout the day, though Yui had a hard time keeping her excitement in, so that they could shower Mio with congratulations and gifts as they came to the music room. Mio did not want to make a huge deal about her birthday; she just wanted to spend it with the four of her friends.

Four. That of course means someone was missing. Tainaka Ritsu, Mio's long-running childhood best friend, was inexplicably late. For now, everyone had assumed that Ritsu had something special in mind and so didn't question her absence. Instead, plans for tomorrow, when the real celebration was going to be held, were being discussed.

"I really hope that we get nice weather tomorrow!" Yui cooed.

"Don't worry Yui-chan, it may be cold outside but as I've heard we will be getting sunny weather in the following three days." Mugi assured her.

"Yeah, that's what I heard! But last night I saw lightning outside my window. I thought it was really strange because this morning as Ui and I walked to school I couldn't see a single cloud anywhere!"

Azusa looked at Yui strangely, "That _is_ pretty weird, there was no mention of any storms, and like you said the sky was clear. Are you sure it was lightning, Yui-senpai? It could have just been a car."

"I know Azu-nyan!" Yui smiled at Azusa, "But it was a really intense flash, and I heard a boom outside too, it scared me! Didn't anyone else hear anything?" She eyed her friends.

"Not me." Azusa replied.

"Me neither." Said Mio.

"I didn't see or hear anything." Mugi confirmed.

"But Ui told me she did hear something! What could it have been?" Yui raised one of her eyebrows, looking up.

"Well it doesn't really matter, as long as we don't get any storms in the following days everything should be-"

_Crash! _  
>Mio was interrupted by a loud opening of the door, there stood Tainaka Ritsu.<p>

The band's drummer and the club's president; standing a couple of centimeters shorter than Yui, and like her having shoulder-length brown hair, though a different shade and bangs held up by a headband. Golden amber color in her eyes, Ritsu had an energetic and upbeat personality which caused her to often act on a whim and live in the present. That is except when there was nothing to do, or at least nothing to her liking. Ritsu could then switch into being laid back very easily.

"Yo! Man it's cold outside, I think we should just stay in here where it's warm for the rest of today!" She dropped her bag on the couch and seated herself in the sole empty chair at the table.

Silence.

"Hey Mugi! Aren't you going to pour me some tea? Considering how cold it is outside it's amazing I've made it this far!" Ritsu was clueless as to why everyone was looking at her, as if they were expecting her to say something.

Mugi broke the silence. "Ricchan, don't you have something to say to Mio-chan?"

"Huh? I don't think so… was I going to ask her to help me study for the entrance exams?" Ritsu still had no idea.

The faces of most of Ritsu's friends were now filled with concern; Azusa additionally showing the slightest hint of contempt. The music room was growing tense.

"Mio?" Ritsu looked at her questioningly.

Mio's eyes were tearing up slightly. "Ritsu… you forgot about it, didn't you?" she said in sad monotone.

Suddenly Ritsu felt like someone had just stabbed her with a knife in the gut, her expression turning into shock only to be quickly replaced by an apologetic grin. "Oooh! _That!_ Right! Happy birthday Mio! I got you… uh…" Ritsu ran over to her bag, digging through it.

She came back empty handed, it was true, she had completely forgotten about Mio's birthday. Ritsu opened her mouth as if to say something but Mio wouldn't even look at her; she just stared down at the table. Ritsu remained quiet, she was really worried now. She had expected Mio to just hit her over the head and forgive her like she always did, but nothing came, just silence and the occasional sniff.

"Mio-chan…" Mugi went over to Mio in a futile attempt to comfort her.

"Jeez Ritsu-senpai… I knew you were careless, but that you would do this to your best friend. I never would have thought that!" Azusa pouted at her. Yui just remained in her chair, still wearing the concerned expression.

From that point the mood in the music room had darkened significantly with no remedy in sight, everyone just sipping their tea and not saying much. Soon enough it was decided that it would be best to split up for the day. The group did not walk home together like they always did, instead everyone immediately went their separate ways, they did agree that they would still meet up tomorrow for the celebration though.

Yui looked back. Ritsu was still standing at the entrance to school grounds, as if lost. Yui ran back to her.

"Ricchan!" She yelled. "Ricchan, are you alright? You look really terrible."  
>"Yui… I don't know, I think I really screwed up this time. Mio would usually hit me when something like this happens but today she just ignored me." Ritsu said with weary eyes.<br>"Ricchan… I know that Mio-chan must be really mad at you, but cheer up! I'm sure Mio-chan will forgive you, you just need to make it up to her tomorrow!" Yui gave Ritsu a warm smile; she did not lose her optimism.  
>Ritsu was quiet.<br>"Ricchan… please come to! If we lose our captain, what will we do?" Yui did not give up. "I know! Want to come home with me? I'll play you some music on Giita and Ui will make us something delicious to eat, I'm sure it will make you feel better!"  
>Ritsu finally gave in to Yui's cheerfulness; she sighed and faintly smiled. "Sure."<p>

As they walked to Yui's house Ritsu seemed to regain her enthusiasm, by the time they reached the front door she was almost as energetic as always. They quickly got inside to escape the cold.

"Ah, Onee-chan, welcome back!" Ui, Yui's younger sister, said as she heard the door open.

If one didn't know better, they might have called Yui and Ui twins. While it was true that they were extremely similar in appearance, in truth they were born a year apart. Ui could be easily told apart from Yui by her short ponytail; and while sharing her sister's kindness and skill with the guitar, Ui was the more responsible of the two, actually being the one to take care of their residence as their parents were seldom home.

"You're back early today- Oh, Ritsu-san?"  
>"Pardon the intrusion!" Ritsu grinned at her.<br>"Ui, Ricchan had a fight with Mio-chan. I wanted to cheer her up so I invited her over!" Yui told her little sister.  
>"Oh, I see… Well I didn't know you were coming home early so I don't have anything ready. I could make you two lunch now if you want though."<br>"Thanks Ui! That would be great!"

Ritsu and Yui sat down on the couch in the living room, leaving their things next to it while Ui retreated to the kitchen. Yui took out her guitar out of its case while humming to herself. She started playing a tune but then stopped abruptly. "Ricchan… how do you play a 'C'?"

"You forgot again? Isn't this like the fifth time?" Ritsu grimaced at Yui.

"E-he-he…" Yui closed her eyes and pressed her palm against the back of her head.

Suddenly, Ui called out from the kitchen. "Onee-chan! I don't think I have enough rice for all three of us!"  
>"Oh! Ricchan and I can go buy some more for you! Right, Ricchan?"<br>"Uuh… yeah… sure…" Ritsu didn't look all that happy about it.

Still, they got their coats back on. "We'll be right back!" Yui called, and they stepped into the cold once again.

"Do you know a store around here?" Ritsu asked Yui as they were walking towards the road.  
>"Yeah, just past the park! There's a general store at the bottom of the hill!" They began their journey down the road.<p>

As they were passing the park Ritsu started thinking aloud. "Hmm… you know I really need to get Mio a present for tomorrow, I don't want her to sulk at me for the rest of time." She pinched her chin.  
>"We could go all the way to the shopping district so you can pick something out, Ricchan. We can get the rice on our way back!"<br>"Yeah I guess so, I don't think we can be more frozen than we already are anyway."  
>"But you have to apologize to her too, Ricchan! You really hurt Mio-chan today."<br>"Yes, yes I know! Don't worry Yui, we've had some intense fights in the past. It'll work out!"

They were about to reach the top of the hill when they noticed something peculiar. The bushes next to the road appeared to have been run down, a trail of flattened shrubbery leading off into the woods.

Yui was worried. "Ricchan… what happened here?"  
>"I… don't know. It looks like someone lost control of their car and veered off into the forest. Should we go take a look? Maybe they need help." Ritsu said as she looked on into the forest.<br>"Yeah."

They tagged after the trail of razed hedge. At the end of it they did indeed find a vehicle, and a quite unusual one at that. The car sported a metallic silver color and only two doors. And while its design didn't make it appear very modern it still gave off a feeling of ominousness.

"De… Lorean?" Ritsu was reading the Latin inscription on the car's back bumper, leaning on the back body which was extremely cold to the touch. "I've never seen this kind of car before or heard of this manufacturer. Yui, have you ever seen anything like this? "  
>"No captain, never!" Yui was staring at the vehicle intently.<br>"Wait… weren't we supposed to-"

They ran to the front of the vehicle, noting that it was almost completely undamaged save for some mud that had collected on the hood. Also uncanny was the fact that the driver's seat was on the left and not right like is usual in Japan, but more importantly and to Yui and Ritsu's bewilderment, both the driver seat and the passenger seat were empty. They looked at each other.

"Did… the driver already go to get help?"  
>"I don't know, Ricchan."<p>

"You don't suppose they ran off into the forest, do you?" Ritsu looked at the trees in front of the car, even in daytime the forest looked very uninviting. But it was what Ritsu and Yui found behind them that really unsettled them. There, in between trees, was a complete set of clothing, arranged as if a person was wearing them, it was soaked in thawed frost that had collected on it the night before.

"What… is this?" Ritsu was staring in confusion.  
>"They're clothes, Ricchan." Yui said, standing behind Ritsu.<br>"I can see that, but look at them! Why are they arranged like this?"  
>"I think we should leave, Ricchan." For the first time in a while, Yui was discomforted, her perpetual smile replaced with what could almost be called a frown.<p>

"Well… let's take one last look at the car." Ritsu approached the door again, intent on trying to open it. As she pulled the handle though, to her surprise the door started rising instead of opening towards her as she had expected, producing a mechanical noise as it did so. "Whoa!" Ritsu narrowly avoided being hit on the chin.

"This is one strange car." Ritsu peered inside the vehicle, it was almost completely devoid of any items, but what caught her attention was what looked like a control panel, situated below the ventilation. The panel had what looked like two displays, the top one appeared to be turned off while the one below it was displaying the current date and time, to minute precision, in green color. Under the displays was a small numeric keypad. Ritsu didn't know what to make of the panel, it looked like a clock but it also appeared too sophisticated to be merely that. From the control panel a handful of wiring protruded and connected to the back of the vehicle, which was sealed off by a metal chassis.

"Ricchan, you shouldn't do that, this isn't our car." Yui watched Ritsu from behind as she climbed inside the car and into the driver seat. Ritsu then saw something that made her blood warm up: the key was still in the ignition.

_If I were to show up in this tomorrow Mio would probably think it's the coolest thing ever!_

Ritsu was now seriously considering taking the vehicle for herself, she was still about 7 months from being able to get a driver's license but she did ask her father to teach her some things in advance and she believed that she could drive this car.

"Come on Yui, get in!"  
>"Ricchan?" Yui was staring at Ritsu, unsure if she was being serious.<br>"Get in I said!" Ritsu was eying her excitedly, evidently completely serious.  
>"You want us to steal this car?"<br>"Steal is such an ugly word… salvage! We're salvaging it!" Ritsu was trying to justify her intentions.  
>"But it doesn't look like it has been here long; someone could come back for it!"<br>"Naahh, I don't think so. Look at that, whoever owned this car must have given up on all their stuff in order to become one with nature; they even left their clothes behind! Either that or this forest is some kind of gateway to hell, or it consumed them, either way it would be a waste to leave this car here! Trust me, it'll work out!"

Yui did not like this, there was nothing to convince her that it wasn't stealing, but on the other hand this whole situation was surreal and frightening to her: finding a vehicle seemingly abandoned by its driver after veering off into the forest, along with about everything else that they had owned. She didn't want to stay here any longer and so she reluctantly scuffed over to the other door.

"Watch your chin!" Ritsu called as Yui opened the door, settling into the passenger seat. They both then shut the doors.  
>"Ricchan, can you actually drive?" Yui asked, worry spread across her face.<br>"Sure I can, this looks like a pretty standard automatic transmission setup. This is the gear lever, and it's set to park now which means I can start the car! What I'm not sure about is this display here, it looks pretty complicated for a clock."

Ritsu tried pressing some random numbers on the keypad, but nothing happened other than a beep being produced. She then hit the return button and suddenly the upper display lit up, now showing 'July 3, 1985 17:32', in red.

"Oh, it's to enter the date… but why are there two displays?" Ritsu still didn't quite understand. She stopped for a moment, as if she were in thought, then entered a different set of numbers, the date 'May 3, 1996 07:30' appeared on the display.

"Ricchan, what are you doing?" Yui asked her, her voice meek.  
>"I'm just trying to figure out what this thing is, I have no idea what it could possibly be used for… oh well, it doesn't matter."<p>

Ritsu turned the key and the dashboard came to life as expected, but when she tried to actually start the engine… nothing happened; the key wouldn't go any further.

"Huh?" Ritsu inspected the dashboard, but couldn't find anything wrong with the car. "I can't start it." Then she noticed something, there was no fuel gauge, instead there were two gauges with a battery icon, the one with a smaller icon was showing brimming full, the other about 75% full.

"Oh! I get it! This sucker must be electrical!" Ritsu exclaimed with the excitement of someone who had just made a scientific breakthrough. She shifted the lever into the R position and released the brake, indeed the tachometer shot up to about 1000 and the vehicle started slowly cruising backwards, soon reaching the edge of the forest where Ritsu slowly set it back on the road.

Ritsu wanted to do this carefully, she noticed three positions at the bottom of the transmission control: L, S and TS; TS was the very bottom position, slightly more distant from the rest. Ritsu figured that TS would limit the vehicle to the first three gears, and so shifted into that, but as she did a loud beep went off, as if to give a warning. The beep had given Ritsu a scare and caused her to release the brake, what happened after this neither her nor Yui were prepared for. The car exploded forward, reaching 100 kilometers per hour in mere seconds. Ritsu couldn't do anything; both Yui and she were paralyzed by the sight in front of them, a medium sized truck, they were set for a head-on collision.

Yui saw the speedometer, it was showing 114 kilometers per hour, she knew there was no way they could survive this, she clenched her teeth and closed her eyes tightly. Then everything went white.


	2. The One Who Disregards Time

_Top A/N:_ I would like to thank everyone who took their time to give me feedback.

Regarding the apparent factual error regarding everyone's age, if those of you who pointed this out could tell me their source of information, that would be great. My source was this wiki here: http:/k-on(dot)wikia(dot)com/wiki/K-ON!_Wiki. While it does neatly provide everyone's age, it does not provide a birth year, leaving me to assume that it is their age during first year as indeed I have. Citing a source would be very helpful because this kind of information is generally scarce and I'm trying to keep things consistent to the best of my ability. If my information regarding ages is truly incorrect then please go with it, it's kind of important for the story.

That out of the way, here's…

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><p><strong>Chapter 2 – The One Who Disregards Time<strong>

Yui's vision slowly returned. They were still in the car and in one piece, the truck or the road were nowhere to be seen however. The car was still going forward, but it was now on a meadow, surrounded by grass in most directions, except forward, where there was a hunk of large trees becoming increasingly larger.

"Ricchan!"

Ritsu slammed the brakes, the car stopped a few meters short of a collision, both Ritsu and Yui sighed in relief.

"Is this heaven, Ricchan?" Yui asked Ritsu, staring at her with wide open eyes.

"… The_ car_ came with us to heaven?" Ritsu sneered.

"Why wouldn't it? It seemed like a nice car."

"It just tried to kill us!" Ritsu shook Yui by the shoulders.

Outside, the grass appeared to be stretching on. "But we're still alive… how did we end up here?"

"Did you steer us away at the last moment Ricchan?"

Ritsu shrugged. "I don't remember doing that… did I do it subconsciously?"

Yui imitated Ritsu's shrug.

"Well let's just get back to the road, and never use this setting again." Ritsu shifted from TS to R, released the brake, and… nothing happened.

"Huh?" Ritsu hit the throttle, nothing. A beep went off and with that the dashboard died, the clock display went along with it; before anyone could notice that the green display was now showing the year 1996. "Oh come on!" Ritsu was turning the key back and forth, to no avail.

"Ricchan, what's wrong?"

"The car's dead!" Ritsu indicated the dashboard.

Consecutive beeps started going off, the smaller battery icon on the dashboard blinking along with them and the gauge showing empty.

"Great!" Ritsu spat as she slammed the steering wheel, the horn going off momentarily. "You know what? Forget the car! I don't want it anymore! Let's just go on our way!" Ritsu pouted at the vehicle as she opened the door.

Yui was about to open her own door when she heard Ritsu yell out in discomfort. "What the heck? It's hot! Like 20 degrees hot!" She screamed as she was struggling to get her coat off.

Warm air poured over Yui as the door opened. "Aaa, you're right Ricchan!" She calmly took her own coat off. "But how is that possible?"

"I have no idea! And was it this sunny a moment ago? Wasn't the Sun already setting when we left your house?" Ritsu looked on at the sky.

"Hmm… yeah it was. Did we pass out?"

"I had to stop the car myself! Did it keep driving on its own the whole time we were out? And wouldn't someone wonder where we are?"

Yui took out her phone; it was showing the words 'No network.' Yui had never seen that happen before. "Ricchan, my phone isn't working!" She put it in Ritsu's face.

"That's odd." Ritsu reached for her own phone, sure enough, she was met with 'No network.' "Wha'? Mine's dead too!" She tried shaking it, which of course did nothing. "This is nuts!" Ritsu shoved her phone back into her pocket. "Let's just go!"

Yui and Ritsu abandoned their vehicle, going back in the direction they thought they had come from. But a road was nowhere to be found.

"Hehe... we got lost in a meadow Ricchan!" Yui grinned at Ritsu.

"We did _not_ get lost! I can see buildings right over there, that's where we're going!" Ritsu pointed to where several rooftops could be seen in the distance.

"Yes, captain!"

They marched on towards what looked like civilization, however instead of the road, they encountered train tracks, which would be okay if the road wasn't supposed to come first. Despite the confusion, they kept going towards the buildings, eventually reaching them and a road, it turned out to be a familiar part of town.

"Okay, I know where we are now, so let's just go back to your house." Ritsu said with determination.

"But what about the rice Ricchan? And Mio-chan's birthday present!" Yui was trying to keep up with Ritsu.

"Forget about that, we almost died just now! I need someone to tell me I'm not losing my mind!"

They followed the road north and took a right as they would to get to the street where Yui lived. As they walked, buildings were decreasing in number and size. Soon the walkway ended, Ritsu was now sweating, not so much from the heat as from the concern. Yui was just looking around in disorientation. They kept going, and shortly thereafter the asphalt road gave way to gravel and then dirt, leading off into the wilderness that they had come from not 10 minutes ago.

Ritsu was aghast; she was frantically looking back for any turns that she might have missed, but there weren't any. "Yui… I'm _not_ losing my mind, am I?"

"No Ricchan, my street is gone! What could have happened to it?" Yui was jumping back and forth trying to find her way.

"It can't be… this has got to be some sort of mistake, let's go to my house instead!"

Ritsu ran back to the city, Yui chasing after her. "Ricchan slow down! I can't keep up with you!"

They ran through the streets, as they did Yui bumped into a girl at an intersection. "Sorry excuse me sorry!" She yelled before resuming her chase after Ritsu, the girl didn't get a chance to say anything, but something about her gave Yui a strange feeling, she noticed that the girl was carrying a guitar case on her back. Yui didn't have time to think about it, she could hardly keep up with Ritsu as it was.

Ritsu felt relieved, she recognized the street she was now on as her own, and she could even see her house in the distance. "Phew… alright! We're here!" Ritsu didn't pay any attention to her surroundings; she just ran up to the house and checked the mailbox. As she had expected, it said 'Tainaka', she ran up to the front door.

As Ritsu was taking her key out Yui finally caught up with her. "*Wheeze*… Ricchan! We made it!" Yui looked around. "Weren't there some trees growing right around here?"

Ritsu didn't look back, she tried to insert the key into the lock… it didn't fit. "This can't be happening… this is a joke, right? This is Mio paying me back for forgetting her birthday!" Ritsu said in dismay.

As Ritsu vainly tried to open the door, a middle-aged man in a suit was passing by her and Yui, he looked at them. "What are you two doing?"

Ritsu jolted. "Uh- nothing, nothing! I live here! I just misplaced my keys, that's all!"

"Is that so? I live two houses away, I know the people that live here and I've never seen you before!"

"Um…" Ritsu swallowed hard.

The man was glaring at her. "So, are you going to tell me what you are doing or am I going to call the-?"

"Whoa, whoa… mister, what's that?" Ritsu suddenly pointed behind the man, making an amazed face.

The man turned around, as did Yui. Ritsu instantly grabbed Yui's hand and ran down the street. "Ricchan! What are you- " Yui was taken by surprise. The man yelled after them but couldn't keep up.

Reaching an intersection, and with Yui out of breath again, Ritsu decided that they got away safely. She looked lost again. "So… your entire street no longer exists, and I'm no longer a resident of my own house."

Yui frowned, as if in concentration. "Captain! We've gone back in time!" Her expression was now completely serious, and her fists clenched in front of her.

"What?" Ritsu was even more lost now.

"What was the date you gave the car?"

"It was… May 3, 1996…"

"That's right! I used to live on the other side of town until 2001, we moved to our new house when it was built!"

Yui jumped in front of a woman that was walking by them. "Excuse me! What's today's date?"

The woman was startled by Yui's sudden question, but she answered. "It's May 3rd…"

Yui went back to Ritsu. "See Ricchan?"

Ritsu was amazed. "So… that car was… a time machine?" Suddenly everything made sense to her. The control panel in the car, Yui's neighborhood not being there, her key not fitting, the little things she noticed, it all seemed natural. "That is the coolest thing ever! But it means we have to go back to it! Come on!"

They rushed once again, this time back to where they had started; Yui thought she was going to die. They exited town and, as they pushed through the grass, to their relief they found the DeLorean where they had left it.

"Oh thank god, it's still here." Ritsu ran to the car, opening the door. She found the key in the ignition and pulled it out. "But we can't do anything. It's out of power."

"I think we may need to ask someone to help us Ricchan."

"Yes I think you're right." Ritsu agreed. "But who can we ask? I don't think our parents would react very well if they found us 14 years older. We're supposed to be like… 3 now."

Yui got into the passenger seat again, finally able to settle down. They both just sat in the car for a while, thinking.

Ritsu was no longer very worried about their situation, she figured they would be able to just recharge the vehicle's battery and be on their way. She agreed to Yui's idea of going to someone for help because she figured it would be good to get set on their way by someone familiar with this period.

Suddenly, Yui called out. "Sawa-chan!"

"Huh?" Ritsu looked at her. "Sawa-chan?"

"Yeah! She's supposed to be about our age now, isn't she? And we know that she went… goes to our school!"

"Well… yes, but what are we going to tell her? That we're her students from the future?"

"… Why not?"

"Sometimes I forget who I'm talking to." Ritsu sighed with a smile. "Alright! I can't think of anything else, let's go to the school and see if we can find her."

They exited the car and Ritsu looked at it. "We can't move the car… I guess we'll just leave it here again."

"Ricchan… can we leave some of our things in it? I'm really tired from all the running." Yui still couldn't quite catch her breath.

"Yeah, I think we could, I doubt anyone will even find it out here." They left their coats and other winter accessories in the car, and Ritsu locked it.

They got back to the city, this time set for their will-be school, hoping to meet their will-be club advisor and homeroom teacher, Yamanaka Sawako.

In truth, Yui didn't really know how Sawako might be able to help them, but she didn't want herself and her friend to be alone in this time in which they're not supposed to exist as they are. She wanted to meet someone who wasn't lost in this period.

As Yui and Ritsu were heading for Sakura High, Ritsu noticed something, something that triggered an immense feeling of nostalgia in her. They were passing by her old kindergarten. She stopped at the gate.

"Yui!" She called to her friend who kept on walking.

"Oh, what's the matter Ricchan?"

"Look! This is the kindergarten where Mio and I used to go, this is where we met, I think it was right around this time!" Ritsu gazed at the courtyard and the playground that was part of it.

"This sure brings back memories, hey Yui, let's go in for a few minutes!" Ritsu was pointing at the front door of the building.

"Sure Ricchan, I want to see it too!" Yui skipped after Ritsu.

They got inside, the entrance hall was mostly empty, the children apparently already in their classrooms, there was only a single woman at the front desk. Yui and Ritsu paid her no mind; they were just looking around the hall.

Eventually, she called out to them. "Can I help you two?"

Ritsu turned to her. "Oh, um… I'm Tainaka Ritsu's older sister, I wanted to see the kindergarten my sister attends!" She said.

"The troublemaker? We really can't restrain her, I hope she's not like that at home too." The woman told Ritsu.

"Uh… yeah…" Ritsu felt a little uncomfortable now, Yui gave her a small giggle.

While Ritsu was busy with the reception lady, Yui noticed someone else come in. It was a young woman with long black hair, maybe in her mid-twenties; walking with her was her daughter, who looked no more than four and very similar in appearance. The daughter appeared to be uncomfortable, trying to hide behind her mother. Yui's face instantly lit up.

_Mio-chan!_

Yui crouched and gave Mio the sweetest smile she could, Mio noticed her and looked at her surprisedly, but neither of them said anything.

_Aaa… she's so cute!_

Mio stopped her mother halfway to the front desk; the mother crouched and looked Mio in the eyes. "Mio, please… we talked about this. I know it's hard for you, but we can't put this off for another year. Please, try to be strong, I'm sure you'll meet some nice children here."

When Ritsu heard Mio's name uttered her heart skipped a beat. She turned around and the sight before her sent her into an excited state, she couldn't hold it. "Mio! You're here!"

Mio was now once again hiding behind her mother, who was looking at Ritsu with concern. "W-Who are you? How do you know my daughter?"

Ritsu suddenly realized she just got ahead of herself in more than one way. "Er… I'm…"

Mio's mother turned to her daughter. "Mio, do you know this woman?" Mio just shook her head quickly. Now-angry eyes were on Ritsu again. "Are you a stalker?"

Ritsu was horrified by that question, she tried to respond before her brain could fully process things. "No! I'm a time tra- I mean…"

Mio's mother was now disgusted. "Y-You're insane! Let's go Mio, I'm not sending you here where this psychopath has free access!" They turned to leave, passing by a distressed Yui.

Yui couldn't believe what she had just seen. Without warning she began feeling lightheaded, screeching in her ears, and shortly after, her vision blacked out. She fell to her knees, pressing hands to her temples in pain. When she came to, Ritsu was standing over her, looking at her worriedly.

"Oi! Yui! What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Ricchan." Yui got back to her feet. "What did you say to Mio-chan's mother?"

Ritsu was now eyeing her quizzically. "Whose mother?"

"Huh? Mio-chan's mother Ricchan! You were just talking to her!" Yui was confused.

"Um… I did just talk to a woman. But I don't think I knew her, or a 'Mio'. Why was I even talking to her?"

They then noticed that the receptionist was giving them an offended stare. "Could I ask you two to leave?" They did.

Outside, Yui resumed interrogating Ritsu. "Ricchan, what happened to you? How can you not know who Mio-chan is! She's your best friend!" Yui was desperately trying to get to Ritsu.

"Yui I really don't know where you're coming from. I don't know a 'Mio' and I never did! There isn't even a 'Mio' in our class!" Ritsu looked sincerely unaware.

"How can you say that Ricchan? Mio-chan and you have known each other since you were little, and I've known both of you for three years now! We're the Light Music Club! You, Mio-chan, Mugi-chan, Azu-nyan and me! We all play in a band together!"

"Yui… did the heat get to you? I suppose by 'Mugi-chan' you mean Tsumugi, that rich blonde girl that nobody ever talks to? And by 'Azu-nyan' you mean your sister's friend Azusa? But we have never been in any club with any of them! And band? What band? I can't even play any instruments!"

Yui's pupils contracted at this, she stopped for a moment, then gasped in horror.

_Oh no… if this is Ricchan and Mio-chan's old kindergarten, and my Ricchan just scared little Mio-chan away, then that means… she changed history!_

"Ricchan, when did we meet?" She asked urgently.

"Huh? We met in second year, when we got put in the same class."

Yui was put in a state of extreme fright by this confirmation of her suspicions. For the first time in her life, she felt like she was alone, like everything might actually fall apart.

_No… I don't want to be alone!_

Yui didn't know what to do, so she did the only thing that came to her mind that would provide comfort. She hugged Ritsu. But as soon as she did, Ritsu lost her breath. Yui didn't know what she had done wrong but she backed off. Ritsu looked like she was being suffocated by an invisible force, then she suddenly exhaled. She turned to Yui.

"Yui… what just happened? I have memories of a life that shouldn't have happened! The Light Music Club, Mio, it's all gone!" Ritsu looked completely off-course, her memories of the original timeline apparently restored, then her eyes suddenly widened in realization. "Oh no! It's my fault, I just scared them away!"

Yui was momentarily overtaken by a sense of intense alleviation, she wasn't alone; her Ricchan was back. But the state of things and what just happened quickly came back to her.

"Ricchan, get a grip! We have to go after Mio-chan and her mother!" Yui pointed in the direction that would lead to Mio's house.

They went as fast as they could.

"Yui, did you restore my memories? How did you do that?" Ristu asked as they ran.

"I don't know Ricchan! My memories didn't change!" Yui said, giving the best shrug she could while running.

As fast as they went, they didn't encounter Mio or her mother along the way. They found themselves in front of Mio's house.

"What will we do Ricchan?" Yui asked.

"We have to try to talk to Mio's mother, there's no other way. Damn, why did she have to be paranoid like Mio? Okay, I just have to relax and talk to her and it'll work out!"

Ritsu approached the front door and reluctantly hit the doorbell. The door opened after a few seconds, it was Mio's mother, whose face became struck with terror as soon as she saw Ritsu.

"Y-You! What are you doing here? How do you know where we live?" She yelled hysterically.

"No please, just hear me out, this is a misunderstanding! You have to-"

"I will call the police! Leave us alone!"

Ritsu earned herself a door slammed to her face and not much more. She went back to Yui.

"This won't do us any good, will it?" She said.

"Ricchan, maybe we should go see Sawa-chan, she might know what to do." Yui suggested.

"She doesn't even know what to do 14 years later!" Ritsu retorted. "But it doesn't look like we can do anything else here right now, except maybe get arrested."

They proceeded towards Sakura High, arriving there they found the courtyard crawling with students; apparently it was lunch break time.

"Good thing we still have our uniforms, we'll fit right in. It seems uniforms changed little over the years here." Ritsu said.

"But where do you think Sawa-chan could be? Where do we look for her?" Yui asked as they walked towards the main entrance.

"I'm not sure… what year is she? How old is she in 2010?" They got inside.

"I think she was 26 when she became our advisor, that would make her 29 now… er… in 14 years!" Yui tried to remember, stopping by the lockers.

"So she's 15 now? That means she's a freshman. We should check the first year classrooms!"

Passing through hallways, they encountered a door, the sign behind it labeled 1-1. "Might as well start here." Ritsu said, reaching to open it.

The classroom was mostly empty, only a few girls quietly eating their lunches, none of them resembling Sawako. "Not this one, huh?" Yui said as they left.

1-2 was nearby, Yui and Ritsu started checking the front row as they got in, but then they heard growling in the back row. "Sheesh, why did I have to get sorted into this class where I don't know anyone! And none of my friends even come to visit me, how boring…"

It was a girl with long brown hair and matching eyes, wearing a pair of glasses. She was sitting by herself next to the window in the second to last row, looking grumbly. There was no mistake, that was Yamanaka Sawako.

Yui ran straight up to her, Ritsu following behind. "Sawa-chan!"

"Oh! Someone did come to see me!" Sawako looked up at Yui. "No, wait, I don't know you… Yes I do, you're the one that ran into me this morning!" Her scowl returned.

"Oh, that was you Sawa-chan! I knew you looked familiar!"

"Look, Yui probably isn't the best one to explain this. Would you come with us somewhere where we can talk?" Ritsu interrupted.

"I don't know. What is this about?" Sawako looked at Ritsu skeptically.

"It's complicated, I'll explain everything though, just come with us!" Ritsu tried to assure her.

"Well okay, anything to get away from this boredom." Sawako picked up her lunch box and finished it in a few bites. "Let's see what you've come up with that involves me." Standing up, Sawako was maybe a centimeter shorter than Yui.

Ritsu and Yui led Sawako to the part of school they knew best, the music room.

"Are you two members of the Light Music Club? If you are going to try to persuade me to join it then save your breath, I was going to join this club anyway." Sawako said as they stopped in front of the music room door.

Ritsu and Yui both grimaced at the irony. "Well… it's… not quite like that." Ritsu said.

We _will_ be members of the Light Music Club!" Yui said.

"So… you want me to join it with you? Why?" Sawako of course didn't understand.

"No, Yui means it literally! The two of us are from the year 2010, where we are members of the club and you are our advisor and teacher, we came here in a time machine, but it no longer works, we need someone to help us fix it!" Ritsu said, lifting her right hand up.

"… So, you two are selling dope, are pretty high on it yourselves, and are trying to make me buy some, is that it?" Sawako deadpanned.

"Er… no I mean it!"

"Come on! This is a pretty fancy joke but I've had enough, I'm going back to my classroom."

Sawako turned to leave, but then she heard Ritsu whisper behind her. "We know you like him…"

"W-What?" She turned back.

"We know you like that guy, you've probably confessed to him recently, and he rejected you. You told us the whole story when we forc- I mean asked you to be our club advisor!" Ritsu said in creepy monotone.

"I haven't told anyone about that…" Sawako said, her face slightly shocked now.

"Come on, believe us! We can show you the time machine!" Ritsu went on.

"Where is it?"

"On a meadow… outside of town."

Sawako knit her eyebrows. "This sounds very much like a ploy to get me away from any prying eyes and then do things to me." She sighed. "But okay, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. I can't go anywhere right now though, I still have classes for three hours."

"That's okay, we've got a lot of time. We'll meet you afterwards." Ritsu said. Sawako went back down the stairs, leaving Ritsu and Yui alone in front of the music room.

"Ricchan… I'm hungry, can we go get something to eat?" Yui said.

Ritsu could feel her own stomach growl. "Yeah, good idea. Let's go to the cafeteria."

Yui and Ritsu took the stairs down and headed for the school restaurant.

* * *

><p><em>Bottom AN: _Well that was chapter 2, have some background information:

Yui's timeline-independent memory and memory restoration powers are not magic, it will all be explained (much) later in the story, as will the origin of the time machine itself, and no, nobody broke into Emmett Brown's garage, it's only a DeLorean because I like that car and am also a twat with no imagination.

Again, thanks go to TastyChainsaws for the beta-read.


	3. Take Your Time

_Top __A/N_: Hello again, this chapter took a while to get out mostly because the circumstances are what they are here and it saps my will to write.

Now that it's done, chapter three has been mostly dedicated to characterization, and as such it will be slightly easygoing.

Like always, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter and TastyChainsaws for beta-reading this one.

Now read on, if you would.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3 – Take Your Time<strong>

Yui and Ritsu were in the music room. They had previously gotten lunch in the school cafeteria, easily passing off as students because of their uniforms. The music room was still vacant when they got back, so they had decided to wait there for Sawako's classes to end.

Ritsu was sitting on the couch while Yui was tiredly doodling on the whiteboard to pass time. The situation stalling had put Ritsu into apprehension; the gravity of what had happened at the kindergarten didn't really come down on her until now. The thought of never seeing Mio again had formed, made worse by the fact that the last time she did see her they didn't part on very good terms.

"Hey Yui." She called.

"Yes, Ricchan?" Yui turned to her.

Ritsu sighed. "This is a pretty big mess we've gotten ourselves into… I mean first with even ending up in the past, but now I've also gone and destroyed our lives…" She paused, blinking several times. "Are we really going to be okay?"

Yui sat down next to Ritsu, looking her in the eyes. "Captain! We must not lose our composure! If we all do our best I'm sure we can get out of this alive!" She announced decidedly.

Ritsu smiled at Yui. "I really love having you around Yui, no matter what happens we can always count on you to keep us going."

Yui was happy to hear that, she feared nothing more than losing her friends and being left alone. Instinctively, she hugged Ritsu. "I love having you around too Ricchan! I know we'll be okay, because we're together!" She said.

They sat together, waiting for time to pass. Soon Ritsu noticed that Yui was leaning on her shoulder, her eyes closed. It seemed Yui had dozed off.

_Great, now I can't move or I'll wake her._

Just sitting on the couch with Yui leaning on her, Ritsu was quickly overtaken by fatigue as well. She didn't mind, they would still have to wait over two hours for Sawako and they had been running around the city for the better part of the last two. She closed her eyes and let sleep slowly take her over too.

Some time passed since then. Sawako was still in class, struggling to pay attention to what the teacher was saying. She couldn't do it; the teacher was speaking in ghastly monotone, the kind that could put a person to sleep while they're riding a rollercoaster. Sawako gave up on the lesson and let her thoughts drift.

_This teacher is so boring… those two said that I would be a teacher here in the future, if they're for real then I can't let myself become like this. I could see myself being a teacher, I'd show them how it's done!_

_But… just what is up with those two? There's no way they could have known. I made sure nobody followed me. I guess I'll go with them and see, maybe I should have asked for their names…_

Sawako's thoughts were interrupted by the bell, the class was finally over. Sawako gathered her things as fast as she could and stormed out, looking around for Yui or Ritsu, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"Oi! Sawako!"

The voice calling to Sawako was not that of Yui or Ritsu but of one of her friends, Norimi.

"Oh, Norimi."

"Are we going to the club room today?" She asked.

"Well, actually I was supposed to meet someone after class, but it doesn't look like they're here." Sawako told her.

"Oh! _Someone?_" Norimi smirked at her, crossing her arms.

"Girls! Two upperclassmen girls, okay?" Sawako sneered.

"Oh really? Do I know them?"

Sawako adjusted her glasses. "_I_ don't even know them." She was doing her best to try to spot the pair she had talked to earlier among the crowd of students leaving their classrooms. "But they told me some interesting things, even if hard to believe.

"Looks like they stood me up though, so let's just go to the club room. Where are the other two?" Sawako said, failing to pick out Yui or Ritsu anywhere.

"I think their homeroom teacher had something to tell the class so she's keeping them." Norimi said, her arms still crossed and her shoulders now slightly raised.

"Well then you wait for them, I'm going to the club room." Sawako went for the stairs.

She thought that maybe Ritsu and Yui were waiting for her in front of the music room where they had parted, but in front of the door, there was nobody.

_Was all of that actually a joke after all?_

She opened the door, as she looked inside her breath was cut off; she immediately shut it again, now blushing. Yui and Ritsu were still inside, sleeping, leaning on each other.

_What… were they doing in there?_

Sawako opened the door again and entered quietly, but Yui seemed to have noticed her.

"Ah, Sawa-chan!" She got up immediately, letting Ritsu fall to the side with a resounding thud. "Are your classes over?"

"Y-Yeah, I expected you two to be waiting for me by the classroom." Sawako was noticeably uncomfortable, but Yui made nothing of it.

"E-he-he, we fell asleep!" She grinned, her eyes shut.

"I… noticed." Sawako looked to the side.

"Ugh… so are you going to come with us?" Ritsu had just then regained her orientation from the rough awakening.

"Yeah, but I need to leave my friends a note. I thought you two had left and we were all supposed to fill out applications for this club." Sawako said, searching her bag for something to write on.

She quickly scribbled on a piece of paper and left it between the door. That done, the three of them took off out the front door of the school.

"How far is this 'time machine' of yours anyway?" Sawako asked as they were passing through the front gate.

"About thirty minutes on foot." Ritsu said casually.

"_Thirty__ minutes?_" Sawako's shoulders dropped. "Ugh… this better be worth it."

They proceeded down the street, Ritsu leading the way. The Sun was still high up; the day had gotten even warmer with not a single cloud in the sky, only the mellow breeze providing the slightest content from the heat.

As they were walking Sawako turned to Ritsu. "So… how old are you two anyway? And what are your names?"

"Oh, we're both seventeen, we're seniors. I'm Tainaka Ritsu, nice meeting you… again… Sawa-chan!" Ritsu told her.

"I'm Hirasawa Yui!" Yui waved at Sawako. "Oooh! I'm Sawa-chan-sensei's senpai now!" She yelled, looking proud of herself.

Sawako glared at Yui slightly. "So it seems you know me already, and I'm your homeroom teacher. So what kind of teacher am I?"

"Oh, you're the lazie-mpht" Yui tried to answer but Ritsu quickly covered her mouth.

"Well… you're usually on time and pretty helpful! All the students love you, that's for sure, you're probably the most popular teacher in the school!" She answered in Yui's place.

As they were passing buildings Sawako stopped in front of one of them. "Look, I live in this house here, since we're passing it by I might as well leave my things here. I'll be right back!" She ran to the door and got inside.

Yui and Ritsu looked on at the house; it was quite sizable, with two floors and a spacy garage that could easily hold two vehicles.

Yui turned to Ritsu. "Sawa-chan's pretty well off, huh?"

"Or at least she was at some point." Ritsu shrugged.

As Sawako returned they picked up their way. Walking down the road, they passed the kindergarten again. Ritsu looked at it, instantly her chest felt heavy as fear pervaded through her, she averted her eyes and looked at the pavement, suppressing the unpleasant emotion.

They reached the end of the street, and Ritsu took them left at the intersection, the border of the city was visible in the distance, leading out into the currently uninhabited area. Exiting the city and passing the train tracks, they soon saw the DeLorean in the distance.

"That's your time machine? It's a car! And it looks pretty old too!" Sawako was not very struck by the vehicle.

"Hey, this thing's pretty advanced! It has an electrical engine, and it sent us back in time!" Ritsu talked back, pulling out the key and unlocking the car.

She got inside, not noticing that the green display had come back to life. "That's the problem actually, it's completely out of power, we can't move it, look." Ritsu inserted the key into the ignition, turned the key, and… the dashboard lit up?

"Wait, what?" Ritsu's jaw dropped. The power gauge was completely full once again, but the other battery gauge was now showing only about 50% full.

"Oh… so that's a spare battery… heh, I wish I had known that before…" Ritsu said in a self-mocking tone, remembering the trouble that they had just gone through.

Yui couldn't hear their conversation; she had gotten enchanted by her surroundings. Forgetting all the bad things that had happened, the day was actually quite pleasant. "Oi, Yui! The car's working again!" Ritsu yelled to her.

Yui ran up to Ritsu and looked at the instruments. "That's great Ricchan! See, I told you the car wasn't bad! It was just exhausted!" She said.

"Yeah yeah…" Ritsu said uncertainly.

"So that means you dragged me out here for nothing. Let me see this thing though." Sawako went around the back of the car and got into the passenger seat. As she did though she noticed that the vehicle does actually appear quite advanced on the inside. "So… how does it work?"

"Well, there are these two displays here." Ritsu pointed to the control panel. "The green one seems to display the current time, the red one can be controlled with the keypad and that's where it takes you." She then turned to the gear stick "It also seems to need to go really fast before it happens, because this setting here makes it go insanely fast with no warning, we actually almost crashed into a truck on our way here." She indicated the TS position.

Sawako was now actually impressed. "You know, I really thought you were full of it when you first came to me, but this looks real! Fancy that, meeting someone from the future! But how come you two have a time machine? Does everyone have one in 2010?"

"Uh… well, no." Ritsu said plainly.

"We stole it!" Yui threw in.

"_Stole_ it?" Sawako was petrified by this announcement.

"We did not _steal_ it!" Ritsu corrected, prodding Yui on the forehead. "We just found it abandoned in the forest."

"_What_ were you doing in the forest?" Sawako asked, her hand now pressing her temple.

"We were passing by it on our way to buy rice! This is actually a part of town in 2010, I live somewhere over there!" Yui pointed past the patch of trees in front of the car.

Sawako felt worry now. Thinking about it, a time machine seemed like a dangerous thing for someone to mess with.

"Well if the car now works again, then you don't need me. You should just go back, and not mess with it again."

"About that…" Ritsu started. She went on to explain what had happened earlier. "And now our lives are basically ruined." She finished.

Sawako was rendered pale by learning that what she feared had already come true. "What were you thinking?" She yelled at Ritsu.

Ritsu looked down, her face wistful.

Yui spoke up. "Sawa-chan, don't be too hard on Ricchan, she feels really bad about what happened."

"And what about you?" Sawako turned to Yui. "Why was your memory unaffected?"

"I really don't know Sawa-chan, it just wasn't." Yui still had just as much explanation as before.

"And you say you were able to restore her memories too somehow?" Sawako kept asking.

"Yes, but I can't explain that either." Yui stated matter-of-factly.

"In any case, feeling bad isn't going to do anything about it." Sawako frowned adamantly. "Alright, we have to fix this somehow! I'll let you two stay with me for now." She exited the car. "I'm going to go tell my parents about you, luckily it's Friday, I'll tell them you'll be staying for the weekend, they're pretty relaxed so they should be okay with that."

Sawako looked over the car, then turned to Ritsu. "I don't think we should leave this car here in the open, but I don't like moving it during the day either, if we get seen driving what amounts to a space ship… that's not going to be very good, and none of us have a license either. We'll wait until dark, and then you can store it in my garage. It's pretty big and we only have one car.

"I'll tell my parents that the car is yours, if you're seventeen that means you can't have a license yet… and yet you still took this car… I hope you can actually drive. Anyway, as far as my parents are concerned, you're eighteen, got it?"

"Yeah, okay." Ritsu confirmed somewhat quietly.

"Then let's do it! I'll come back for you two here when it's dark so we can move the car, try to manage until then. I'll tell my parents we're meeting at twenty, we should be okay then."

Sawako left back for her home; Yui and Ritsu were left alone once again, only the cries of cicadas there to keep them company.

"See Ricchan? I told you Sawa-chan would help us!" Yui chirped at Ritsu.

"It's a start." Ritsu said from the car. "But what are we going to do…"

Yui got back inside, seating herself back into her trusty passenger seat. "Ricchan, I know how hopeless this must seem to you, but don't fret! Mio-chan and you have a special connection, and I'm sure nothing can sever that!" Yui did her best to comfort Ritsu, giving her a compassionate smile, even though she actually didn't know what to do.

"Yui… I… thanks. For being with me." Ritsu was still feeling the weight of her situation but had she been by herself, she probably would have broken down completely by now. "We have to wait for Sawa-chan again, what should we do in the meantime?"

Yui was already asleep in her seat again.

"You're still you, no matter what." Ritsu smiled at Yui's sleeping form. "I guess sleep is a good idea." She hit the door lock button, the doors responding with a click, she leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes, hoping to let sleep claim her once more.

Much later, at around quarter to twenty, Sawako found herself heading back towards the meadow, flashlight in hand, having successfully convinced her parents to let her two upperclassmen friends to stay with her for the weekend. She didn't like the feeling the wilderness gave off in the night, the cries of the wildlife coupled with quite intense darkness made for a spooky combination, but to her relief she soon noticed the DeLorean in the light.

Inside were the still sleeping Yui and Ritsu, Sawako felt a little bad about interrupting them, but seeing that the door was locked, she gently knocked on the window, waking Ritsu.

"Huh… oh, Sawa-chan?" Ritsu looked at her tiredly, unlocking the door. "What time is it?" She glanced at the green display. "Oh, it's twenty already, we've slept for a while…"

Yui was still asleep, paying no mind to the conversation, only stirring a little.

"The car only has two seats, just sit with Yui, you're both pretty small." Ritsu pointed to the passenger seat.

Sawako opened the other door, slowly pushed Yui slightly to the side and sat next to her, somehow failing to wake her.

"Okay, we'll need to get back to the road, I think I can find the one where we were at earlier today, when we were trying to find Yui's house." Ritsu turned the key in the ignition.

She put the car in reverse, backed away from the trees and drove past them. She made way slowly over the grass, not trying to fall into any gaps. Eventually the car's headlights illuminated the dirt road Yui and Ritsu had seen prior. Taking it, it wasn't long until they were back on asphalt, the streetlights visible in the distance.

"Ritsu! Hey! Get on the left side! Left side!" Sawako was quietly yelling and frantically pointing to the side of the road they weren't on, trying not to wake the sleeping Yui.

"Oh! Right!" Ritsu quickly steered into the correct lane. "The layout of this car is confusing me." She excused herself.

The night was mostly quiet in the town, dim lighting was provided by the streetlights but the streets themselves were mostly dead. Having the road mostly to herself, Ritsu tried to drive as sanely as she could to not attract attention, but the vehicle's conspicuous appearance garnered them a few stares from the occasional group they passed by. Hoping that nobody thinks too much of it, she pressed on, quickly reaching the intersection that would lead them to Sawako's home.

"Slow down, we're almost there." Sawako said soon after the turn. "Okay, here, stop."

Ritsu pulled up near the driveway and Sawako got out. "Hold on, I'll open the garage door for you."

She ran up to the garage, pulled out a key and opened the door, there was already a red Honda inside, next to it was just enough room for the DeLorean.

Sawako indicated the spot "Get your car in here, and be careful! If you damage my parents' car we're going to be in a whole lot of trouble!"

"Don't worry, I'm totally used to this car now, I could probably go on car chases with it!" Ritsu shifted into S intent on easing the car into the driveway but released the brake too rashly, causing the car to jerk forward and miss the driveway completely. This earned her an angry stare from Sawako, but she quickly backed up and got the DeLorean safely into the garage.

Ritsu got out. "Phew, alright! That wasn't so bad, was it?" She tried to praise herself.

"Since we're all uninjured, I can't really argue." Sawako told her as she closed the garage, locking it again.

As they were walking over to the front door, they stopped suddenly.

"We're forgetting something." Sawako stated.

"Yui!" Ritsu realized.

Opening the garage door again, they found Yui still quietly snoozing in the passenger seat of the DeLorean, apparently not disturbed at all by recent events.

"Hey, Yui." Ritsu tried to wake her friend.

Yui didn't move at all. "Not yet Ui… it's still dark…" She managed to say.

"C'mon Yui, rise and shine!" Ritsu nudged her lightly.

Yui's eyes opened just slightly this time. "Huh… Ricchan?" She took a second to gather her bearings. "Are we going?"

"Dummy, we're already here. You slept the whole time." Ritsu informed her.

"Ah!" Yui jolted. She darted out of the car. "Excuse me for slacking off captain!" She took a posture as if in formation.

"Your hair is all messed up." Ritsu was trying to straighten Yui's strands. "What are Sawa-chan's parents going to think of us now."

Yui, despite herself, wasn't quite awake at all, she was swaying back and forth as Ritsu was trying to fix her hair. "E-he-he… thanks Ricchan."

Sawako was observing them from the garage entrance. They must be really close, she thought. Sawako's curiosity about the future that she was witnessing a part of grew with every moment she spent with these two girls.

Ritsu walked over to Sawako holding Yui by the hand. "Okay Sawa-chan, we've got everything now!"

Finally entering Sawako's house, Yui and Ritsu could see that the house was actually not very elaborate on the inside, while Sawako's parents were no doubt decently well off, they apparently liked to keep things simple. Rooms possessed no more furniture than necessary and what little decoration there was, it wasn't very flashy.

Sawako led the two of them to the living room, where her parents were sitting together on the couch. Her father had short coffee-brown hair and wore a pair of spectacles, the mother's hair was a vivid chocolate brown, reaching down to her shoulder blades. Both of them smiled at Ritsu and Yui as they entered.

"Hello you two. Ritsu-san and Yui-san, I presume?" The mother said.

They lined up in front of the parents. "Excuse our intrusion!" Ritsu did her best to be polite. "And thank you for letting us stay here!" Yui added. They both bowed.

"That's quite alright, Sawako tells us you two are seniors and aspiring musicians, is that true?" Sawako's father asked them.

"Oh yes, Yamanaka-san! Ricchan is a drummer and I'm a guitarist, we are actually in a band together!" Yui told him.

"Is that so? How wonderful, Sawako has just recently showed an interest in music herself, she's lucky to have senpai like you, please take care of her." Sawako's father said, causing her a bit of embarrassment.

Yui on the other hand found herself recalling the time when _she_ had been given a weeklong tutoring session by Sawako just prior to Afterschool Teatime's first performance. "Y-Yes! Of course!" She muttered.

"But why are you two in your school uniforms?" Sawako's mother asked bemusedly.

"Huh? Oh, well… these are pretty great actually, I wear mine all the time! Right, Yui?" Ritsu tried to explain, she didn't really want to say that they didn't have anything else. Yui quickly nodded in confirmation.

Sawako's parents apparently accepted this explanation, so the father asked another question. "So you're a driver, Ritsu-san? Sawako told us that you two would be coming here in a car."

Ritsu thought for a moment. "Y-Yeah, my dad's pretty crazy about exotic cars! That's why we have that thing, he also taught me a lot about driving, I think I'm pretty decent at it!" She answered with pretended confidence.

Sawako's mother got up. "Well, are you girls hungry? The two of us had dinner earlier but Sawako said she wanted to wait for you two."

"Yes Yamanaka-san, thank you very much!" Ritsu answered for both of them.

Sawako's mother made dinner for the three of them, and they ate mostly in silence. Having finished eating, they retreated to Sawako's first floor room, it was of medium size with all the basic accessories: bed, a single bookshelf, desk and such. It was slightly messy inside, but not so much that one would complain about it.

Sawako climbed up on the bed, "I think my parents like you two, you put on a clean act. But now we need to discuss how we're actually going to get the timeline back to normal!" She addressed her future students.

"We have to somehow talk Mio's mother into enrolling her into our kindergarten, if we can just do that I'm sure everything will be fine." Ritsu said.

Sawako jumped down from the bed and sat on it, Ritsu and Yui got on next to her. "How would we go about doing that though?" Sawako asked. "I want to help you two, but I don't know this anything about this Mio."

"Mio-chan is very shy and frightful, Sawa-chan, it seems she gets it from her mother, they're very similar in almost every way." Yui explained.

"That's our problem though, because Mio's mother is timid like her she refuses to listen to us." Ritsu said disgruntledly, resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

Sawako fixed her glasses, trying to think. "Hmm… is there some other way you can approach this?" She proposed. "A way that doesn't directly involve talking to her mother?"

Ritsu looked back on her times with Mio, she recalled the countless times she made Mio do something for her, then something clicked in her. "Yes, of course!" She blurted. "We need to talk to Mio!"

"Huh?" Sawako and Yui uttered in unison.

"We should talk to Mio herself!" Ritsu repeated.

"What?" Sawako raised an eyebrow. "She's four! And just how do you intend to confront her?"

"Mio is a smart girl, she always has been, I'm sure I can make her understand me!" Ritsu began. "We can talk to her by getting into her room directly from the lower roof, it's possible, I've done it before!" She said.

Sawako's mouth remained agape for a moment. "I don't like the sound of this, you're suggesting invading someone's property here, you could end up getting arrested!"

"But what else can we do?" Ritsu stated plainly. "What time is it?"

"It's about half past twenty one." Sawako pointed to the clock on her wall.

"Perfect." Ritsu said. "Yui, will you go with me?" She turned to Yui. "Mio will probably be frightened by us, but I'm sure you can get her to calm down, you're the nicest person I know."

"Of course, Ricchan." Yui took Ritsu's hand between both of hers. "We're in this together!"

They both smiled at each other. "Yui, thanks. Okay, let's get going!" Ritsu said.

"Wait, right now?" Sawako eyed Ritsu, agape again.

"Yeah, the two of us have been sleeping for the past few hours, and we pretty much have to do this at night." Ritsu told her.

"I still don't think it's a good idea." Sawako said. "But okay, you can get out through the window, I'll tell my parents that the three of us will be going to sleep early so they don't find me alone here." She went for the door and got out.

"Looks like Sawa-chan has always actually been really reasonable." Yui said in Sawako's absence. "She only loses her mind when she's alone with us in the music room!"

Sawako quickly came back, she was carrying Yui and Ritsu's shoes. "You'll probably need these."

They opened the window and Ritsu and Yui quickly jumped out. "Hopefully this works, be careful. I'll be waiting for you, so when you get back just knock here." Sawako told them from the inside.

"Thanks for helping us, Sawa-chan, we'll be fine!" Ritsu said, and Sawako closed the window.

"Let's go Ricchan!" Yui said, and the two of them ran to the front yard of the house.

* * *

><p><em>Bottom<em>_ A/N_: That marks the end of chapter three, which was admittedly a little slow but I wanted to take some time off for characterization before things start actually getting bad. Hopefully I managed to be at least marginally successful at that.


	4. Nighttime

_Top __A/N_: Well here we are, I wrote this chapter a lot faster than I thought I would due to a number of reasons. This chapter marks the point where this story gets darker and the adventure picks up, as was always planned. I hope I handled it well enough.

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><p><strong>Chapter 4 – Nighttime<strong>

It was a warm night in a certain town. Out in it were the two girls lost in time, Yui and Ritsu, going after repairing the damage that they had inadvertently caused. They were passing through what was mostly a residential area, as such there were few people to run into and the atmosphere was mostly quiet, people having either gone out or stayed in their homes.

Their goal was right ahead of them, the house of Akiyama Mio. The building was slightly elevated, and so had stairs leading up to the front door, above the door was a lamp, clearly illuminating the area around it in the night.

Ritsu and Yui stopped at the end of the wall which separated the also raised front yard from the street, where they were veiled by darkness with the lack of nearby streetlights.

Ritsu leaned past the concrete and looked towards the front door. "Hmm… we can't go that way, someone might see us."

"Then what do we do Ricchan?" Yui asked from behind Ritsu, her hands on the drummer's shoulders.

Ritsu took a few steps back. She looked at the wall beside her, then jumped and grabbed the ledge, quickly pulling herself up and into the shrubbery of the front yard.

"Come on Yui!" She quietly called to her friend below.

"Ricchan, I can't climb this!" Yui told her from beneath.

"Sure you can, come on!" Ritsu extended her hand to Yui.

Grabbing the drummer's hand, Yui managed to clumsily scale the wall. She found herself in a thick bush along with Ritsu. In front of them was the front side of the house with two pairs of windows, to the right of it and slightly more forward was a section with the front door. As Yui and Ritsu peeked out of the foliage they could see a figure obscured behind curtains through the window, one with distinctly long hair. No doubt Mio's mother, both of the girls thought, again reminded of older Mio herself.

Above the windows was the lower roofing, covering part of the more spacious first floor. It was about a meter in horizontal diameter and sloped slightly downwards. On the far right of the second floor was what Ritsu knew as Mio's room.

Ritsu was aware that trying to climb the roofing next to the first floor windows would get her noticed for sure. "Yui, Let's move to the left."

They quietly pushed through the shrubbery. On the left side of the house, there weren't any windows, so Yui and Ritsu quickly ran over to it and leaned against the wall. The roofing was just above them.

Ritsu glanced up, she jumped and managed to grab the edge of the tiles, pressing her feet against the wall in front of her.

"Quietly, Ricchan!" Yui warned, worried that there may be someone in the room just behind the wall.

Heeding Yui, Ritsu slowly got up onto the roofing. She lay down onto the sloped surface, offering her hand to the other girl once more. Yui tried to imitate what Ritsu had done, supporting herself against the wall, but one of her feet slipped. Yui reacted quickly, not wanting to pull Ritsu down with her, she let go of the drummer's hand and fell into the grass below.

Ritsu clenched her teeth and closed her eyes at what was happening. As she reopened them, she could make out Yui sitting in the grass. "Yui! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Ricchan! Let's try again!" Yui got up.

Attempting a second time, Ritsu managed to help Yui up. The two of them were now crouching on the left end of the roofing, to the right and between them and Mio's room were more windows, the light was on inside.

Ritsu went into a prone position next to the wall, trying to stay out of the light and started slowly crawling towards the other end. "Let's go Yui, follow me."

Yui followed in Ritsu's wake as soon as there was room, but as they were under the windows they noticed a person walking on the street below.

They froze immediately. "Sshhh.." Yui slowly pressed her finger to her mouth.

As they looked on at the man below, it appeared he wasn't all there, he was swaying left and right along the walkway and didn't look towards them at all. Both of them exhaled in relief as he disappeared from view and then resumed forward.

They were now under the front window to Mio's room. The light was on here too, and the window appeared to be open just slightly to let air in. Yui and Ritsu stopped for a moment, listening to see if there was anything happening inside, the night remained quiet however, all that could be heard were faint cries of birds.

The two girls went back to a crouching position at the side of the window, as they glimpsed through the window above them they made out little Mio lying on her bed, she was facing towards them, but her eyes were closed.

Ritsu found herself unable to believe how good this was going so far, but then something occurred to her. Mio might recognize the younger her at the kindergarten, hoping to avoid that, Ritsu removed her hairband and let her hair down.

"Ricchan, what are you doing?" Yui questioned.

"I don't want Mio to recognize the younger me."

"So you've always worn a headband?"

"As long as I can remember." Ritsu said, looking at her accessory, she slipped it into the pocket of her uniform.

Ritsu slid her hand through the small opening in the window and silently opened it completely. She swiftly got inside Mio's room and then helped her guitarist friend in.

Mio noticed that something was happening at this point, she got into a sitting position on her bed. As soon as she laid eyes on the two girls her pupils contracted, she was overwhelmed by intense confusion and terror, she wanted to yell for her parents, but she found herself completely paralyzed.

Yui and Ritsu were momentarily stunned as well, but then Yui took a step forward. She slowly walked over to Mio.

"Hi, Mio-chan." She calmly crouched to be on eye level with Mio.

Mio covered her own mouth with both her hands, her eyes were tightly shut and tearing up.

Yui smiled gently. "We're not going to hurt you, Mio-chan, we just want to talk to you." She stroked Mio's hair lightly. "So don't be afraid of us."

Mio opened her eyes, she was met with Yui's smiling face. She looked on at the older girl in silence briefly. Even with how fearful she was, Mio couldn't find any malice in Yui's eyes. She slowly lowered her arms.

Mio was now eyeing Yui curiously. "H-Hi." She managed.

Yui took out a tissue out of her uniform pocket and wiped Mio's tears. "Good girl." She said.

Ritsu came forward from behind Yui, she squatted next to her. Looking at Mio for a moment, Ritsu found her chest feeling heavy again. "Mio…" She contemplated what to say to the friend that she never met.

"W-Who are you? How do you know me?" Mio asked them before Ritsu could speak.

"Mio... this is really hard to explain… " Ritsu started but then paused. "Do you remember me from earlier today?" She asked.

"Y-Yes."

Ritsu thought about telling Mio who she actually was and what exactly happened, but it all seemed incomprehensible, the weight on the drummer's back seemed to become increasingly heavier.

"Mio… what happened today was a mistake…" She stopped again. "I shouldn't have been there, I shouldn't have prevented you from being enrolled. When I did that I-I…"

As Ritsu stuttered again, she thought of the last time she had seen Mio in the present, about what had happened. The next thing to come to Ritsu were memories of the times she had spent with her four friends, the day with Tsumugi, the time that she met Azusa and Ui in the restaurant, the trip to Kyoto.

Then something else happened, the defective memories of the future as it was now overshadowed the happy remembrance. Ritsu found herself realizing how things actually were, fact after fact was hitting her chest with incredible force.

Yui looked at Ritsu, who was quiet for almost thirty seconds now, the drummer had tears running down her face.

"I… I destroyed something wonderful w-when I did that. S-Something that all three of us were a part of." Ritsu muttered through sobs.

Meeting Mio again had been too much for Ritsu, she didn't expect this to happen, but the weight finally caused her to collapse, she fell to her knees.

Yui was taken aback by Ritsu's sudden breakdown, she was unsure what to do. "Ricchan…" She patted Ritsu on the back, but got no response, the drummer just kept weeping.

Finally, she spoke to Yui. "D-Don't you realize? It's… all gone, I've destroyed everything. Not just myself and you, but everyone! Mugi doesn't have anyone, she's spent her entire high school life alone! Azusa has never met any of us, the other you described her as the twin-tailed girl that sometimes talks to Ui!"

She then turned to Mio. "Mio… I'm sorry, for everything. I know how absurd this sounds, but please, ask your mother enroll you into that kindergarten!" Ritsu begged with desperation in her face.

Next to Ritsu, Yui was now in tears as well, seeing her friend like this along with the story of the future was too much for the guitarist, even with her great optimism. "R-Ricchan…" She tried to say something to comfort the drummer, but she couldn't, she just quietly hugged the other girl.

Mio looked on at the two girls in front of her. With both of them in tears, all notice of fear was gone from the future bassist's mind, it was impossible that they had any ill intent, something terrible really did happen to these girls. Though she did not quite understand the reasons, Mio knew that she was somehow part of this. She hopped off her bed and slowly walked over to Ritsu, whose eyes were still clenched and watery, she pulled at the sleeve of her uniform.

"Nee-chan, what's your name?" She asked as she got Ritsu's attention.

"R-Ritsu… my name is Ritsu." The drummer answered, more or less forgetting her earlier thought to not allow Mio to recognize the younger her.

"Ritsu-nee-chan, why-" Mio was about to ask another question, but then the worst possible calamity occurred for Yui and Ritsu.

Outside the room, footsteps could be heard, the two time travelers knew this could only mean one thing, Mio's parents coming to her room.

Yui quickly gathered her thoughts. "Ricchan, we have to leave!" She told Ritsu.

"Oh no… I've been too loud, they must have heard me!" Ritsu realized, she knew the other girl was right. "Mio, I'm sorry, we can't talk anymore!" She quickly threw to Mio.

They ran for the still open window, quickly jumping out. Mio sat back on her bed, as her mother came in she caught a glimpse of Ritsu as the latter was exiting the room. She didn't recognize the girl, but panic set in immediately, she yelled for Mio's father to call the police, then went to Mio. She looked over her daughter, and to her bewilderment, Mio appeared perfectly calm and completely uninjured.

"Mio, I heard someone talking! Someone was here with you! Who was that? What happened?" The mother frantically asked, but Mio stayed silent.

Meanwhile, the two escapees were lying on the concrete below, they had bumped into each other in their hurry to exit the room, causing both of them to tumble down and off the roofing. They had both received several abrasions on their hands and Ritsu got a considerable scratch on her forehead.

Despite the pain in her head, the drummer quickly got back to her feet. "Yui! Get up, we have to run!" She pulled the guitarist up.

Yui ached all over, the trauma she received on impact made it hard to stand, but she knew they couldn't stay there. Holding Ritsu's hand, they hurried down the stairs and away from the house. Direction didn't matter, they headed right at the bottom of the stairs, running under streetlights and past other houses, they stopped as they noticed the Tainaka residence across the road.

Both girls were completely out of breath, wheezing as they struggled to draw air in. Ritsu's forehead had thick a trail of blood running down it from the scratch she had received, dripping on the pavement she stood on.

"Ricchan… you're hurt…" Yui struggled to get another tissue, but then she noticed that she had a gash of her own on her left hand, it was bleeding almost as profoundly as Ritsu's forehead, still Yui chose to give priority to the drummer.

Ritsu was pressing her hands on her knees and breathing heavily as Yui wiped the blood off her with the white cloth. "Ow!" she grumbled as Yui passed over the wound.

"Here Ricchan… press it against the wound." Yui passed another clean cloth to Ritsu, and the drummer did as told.

"Thanks Yui…" Ritsu said as the other girl lost her footing, dropping down to the concrete.

"What have we done…" The still hairbandless girl continued. "I completely lost my composure… Mio is probably more confused than ever now…"

"Ricchan… you couldn't have known this would happen… it was just too much for you… we'll have to try something else…" Yui said with breaths in between, she had never felt this terrible before, their plan had apparently fallen completely through, but she still tried not to lose her good will.

As they rested in the middle of the walkway, lights appeared in the distance, soon the echo of sirens could be picked up as well. There was no doubt, police cars were coming this way.

"Yui! It's the police, we have to hide!" Ritsu quickly went to Yui and helped her up.

They ran to the front yard of the house they were in front of, toiling over to the hedge, they lay down inside it. The sirens got progressively louder, soon the surroundings were covered in red emergency lights from the passing vehicles. The two girls held onto each other and clenched their eyes shut.

The noise died down as the cars passed, soon it was again only the sounds of the night wildlife. In spite of the warm night, the two girls shivered in their cover. They struggled to get up and quickly escaped from the property they had violated.

"Ricchan, we can't do anything else… we have to go back to Sawa-chan…" Yui whispered tiredly.

"I know…" Ritsu said, still pressing the tissue to her forehead with one hand, she took Yui's with the other.

In their turmoil Yui and Ritsu somehow managed to regain orientation, they limped forward towards an intersection. Going right there, the drummer soon recognized the next junction as the one she had been at with the DeLorean earlier. Holding on to Yui, she took the way as she remembered and soon made out Sawako's home in the distance. The two girls waddled to the back of the building and to the window of what was the future teacher's room.

It was dark inside, but Ritsu knocked weakly on the glass as she had been instructed. It took a minute, but the room lit up, the outline of Sawako could be seen behind the curtains, it walked over to the window, moving away the fabric away to reveal her. Sawako opened the window, and her expression immediately turned shocked as she saw the sorry state the two girls were in.

"Oh no… I knew this would happen. Get in, quickly!"

Yui and Ritsu managed to climb through the window, but both of them collapsed on the floor as they got inside. Both of them were dirty, and several injuries were apparent.

"What time is it?" Ritsu asked.

"A little past twenty three…" Sawako said while looking over them. "You can tell me what happened later, you're both hurt… I'm going to go get something to clean that up." She grabbed her glasses, putting them on, and exited the room.

Sawako walked through the dark hallway to the bathroom, her parents had already gone to bed. Entering the bathroom, she opened one of the cabinets above the sink. Going through bottles of medicine, she managed to find an antiseptic solution along with absorbent cotton and adhesive bandages.

As she tried to walk out however, she ran into her mother.

"Sawako? What's the matter? What are you doing with that?" The mother looked at the medical supplies in her daughter's hands.

Sawako was surprised by the encounter, she pondered how to explain the situation without giving anything away. "Um… Ritsu is incredibly clumsy, she managed to fall down and hit her head on the edge of my bed, she got a scratch but she's okay otherwise, don't worry, I just wanted to clean it up for her." She tried.

"Are you sure she's okay?" The girl's mother mused.

"Yeah, she's fine, she didn't even want this, but she's bleeding a bit." Sawako tried to sound certain.

"Well, make sure you bandage it properly for her." The older woman decided there was no reason to disbelieve her daughter.

Sawako hurried back to her room, her newfound friends were still lying on the floor as she had left them. "You two are really going to get me in trouble…" She murmured. "Sit up, those wounds need to be cleaned."

Yui and Ritsu did as told, Sawako crouched in front of Ritsu first. She applied the antiseptic to a piece the cotton. "This is going to sting no doubt, try to stick it out."

"Just do it, I'll be fine." Ritsu said, removing the crimson stained tissue from her forehead.

Sawako slowly passed over the scratch several times, Ritsu was obviously in pain, her eyes shut and her teeth forced heavily against each other. Sawako placed a bandage over the scratch as she finished.

"Thanks Sawa-chan…" Ritsu dropped on her back again.

Sawako moved over to Yui next, the girl had a substantial cut on the lower part of her left palm, it was still bleeding, Yui tried to lick the blood off to not bleed on her companion's floor.

"Don't do that…" Sawako told her. "Reach out, I need to clean it for you." She took another piece of cotton.

Yui gave Sawako her hand and the girl proceeded to sanitize the wound. Yui winced at the sudden burn, but she let Sawako clean the gash fully.

As she finished, Sawako handed Yui a smaller bandage. "Here, put this over it."

The guitarist removed the protective layer and covered the stinging part of her hand. "Sawa-chan… thank you." Yui's instincts took over again, she hugged the girl in front of her.

Sawako was taken aback by the unexpected gesture, she was going to tell Yui to get off her, but then she heard a sniff and realized that the brunette's embrace felt very weak, almost sad in a way. Despite herself, Sawako returned the expression, putting her hands over Yui's shoulder blades in an almost-hug.

The teacher-to-be was now certain that Ritsu's plan had gone awry, as she and Yui released she stood back up.

"So… tell me, what happened out there?"

Her two future students retold the earlier events. Hearing what happened, Sawako felt exasperated with herself, she had thought that she had minded everything earlier, but she had not, she failed to take one thing into account, the mental state of the two girls. Reflecting on their situation, it occurred to her that something like that would likely have a profound effect on a person, the pair had appeared composed at first, but it was clear now that they had held a lot of negative emotion in, and it boiled over at the worst possible time. Sawako felt defeated in a way, despite the fact that the two would not become her students for many years and were in fact older than her, somehow she still felt responsible for them, she felt like she failed to help them.

The girl walked wearily over to her bed and sat on it, she removed her glasses and covered her eyes. "I shouldn't have let you do this… not so rashly…"

A heavy sigh came from Sawako as she lowered her hand. "So you think you didn't accomplish anything?"

"I don't know Sawa-chan…" Ritsu got back up from the lying position. "Mio seemed to want to talk to me, but like I said, that's when it happened." She lowered her head. "We probably just left her confused."

"I'm sorry Ricchan…" Yui looked at Ritsu. "I shouldn't have let my emotions get to me too… I-I should have been there for you…"

"Yui… maybe… maybe we should just use the time machine again and stop me from doing what I did in the first place!"

Sawako immediately reacted to this. "No! You can't do that! That is exactly how this came to be, because you played with things you don't fully understand!"

Ritsu turned to Sawako, but remained silent.

Sawako got down from the bed as she put her spectacles back on, and crouched in front of the dejected girls. "Listen to me. We can fix this! I'll help you two out, this was only the first attempt, don't give up yet!"

"What can we do next Sawa-chan?" Yui asked her.

"We'll think of something! We still have tomorrow and Sunday until Mio's mother will probably enroll her into a different kindergarten, we have enough time to think of something else…"

Ritsu listened to her future teacher, Yui had been right, Sawako was actually a reasonable person. The drummer reached into her pocket, wanting to place her headband back on. As she looked at it though, she found that it had gotten bent. No doubt when we fell off the roof, Ritsu thought, she sighed disgruntedly and dropped the now useless piece of plastic.

"You two are pretty beat up… you should rest." Sawako walked over to one of the closets. Rummaging through it, she produced a rolled up futon.

"I only have one of these… I used it before I got this bed. Do you mind sharing it?" She asked.

Yui and Ritsu looked at each other for a second, then nodded. "Of course not." Ritsu said as she turned her attention back to Sawako.

"Alright, move aside for a moment."

Yui and Ritsu looked down at themselves as they moved , they both had an amount of dry dirt on their uniforms. "We can't sleep in these, can we?" Ritsu asked.

"No, probably not." Yui confirmed.

Sawako rolled out the bedding where the two girls were sitting a moment before. She then looked over them.

"You two did get yourselves pretty dirty… we'll have to clean up those uniforms a little tomorrow morning." She pondered for a moment. "We should all rest now, there's nothing more we can do."

Sawako was right, Yui and Ritsu were still tormented both physically and mentally by both their failure and escape. The future teacher changed into her nightwear, the other two girls were of no such luck however, they didn't have anything to sleep in, removing their dirtied uniforms, they were left in only their underwear.

Sawako blushed at the sight in front of her, but didn't say anything, she got into her bed. "Try to get some sleep, we'll pick this up tomorrow." She said.

Yui and Ritsu got under the covers together, trying to give each other space. As they lay there, trying to sleep, the pain in Yui's stomach returned. She thought of the future, the future that she didn't know anything about, her thoughts drifted to her kouhai, Azusa.

_Azu-nyan…_

She turned around, Ritsu was still there, her eyes were closed, but the eyelids were twitching just slightly. "Ricchan… are you awake?" She asked quetly.

"Yeah." The drummer responded immediately, apparently not anywhere close to sleeping.

"What did you say happened to Azu-nyan?"

Ritsu let out another heavy breath, she knew what was going through Yui's head, because the same was happening to her. "I don't know Yui… we've never met her, just like we've never met Mio. Azusa had no reason to approach us because neither of us are musicians…"

"Azu-nyan and I never met?" Yui's eyelids now dropped tiredly.

"No…" Ritsu affirmed.

"What about Mugi-chan?"

Ritsu got her hand out of the covers and pressed heavily against her forehead, wincing as she made contact with her forgotten injury. "Mugi is in class with us, but we've never talked to her, and everyone else also seldom does… They dislike her for being rich, they've never given her a chance to show how she really is."

Tears started forming in Yui's eyes again, she sniffed audibly.

"Yui… I'm so sorry I dragged you into this…"

Yui didn't say anything, she moved closer to Ritsu, embracing the other girl. Despite the contact and both of them being in a state of near complete undress, the drummer did not object, she returned the gesture instead.

"It's okay Ricchan… I wouldn't want you to be alone…"

Keeping each other warm, the two girls managed to finally drift off.

* * *

><p><em>Bottom<em>_ A/N_: That was chapter four, the darkness in it is quite dense, but hopefully I did not go too far. I tried to offset it a little with bits of comfort. The next chapter is set to bring more trouble for our pair of time travelers, hopefully they can work things out eventually.


	5. Tears Before Bedtime

_Top__ A/N_: This chapter written instead of studying for midterms, I hope it was worth it.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 5 – Tears before bedtime<strong>

The day of Friday, May 3 1996, was nearing an end. In the last fifteen minutes of it, the home of the four year old Akiyama Mio was found with a couple of police cars parked in front of it, their emergency lights still rendering their surroundings vivid red. At the building's front door stood the couple that were Mio's parents, awaiting an officer who was walking up the stairs to meet them.

The policeman removed his hat and sighed quietly as he approached the pair. "Mr. and Mrs. Akiyama… I'm sorry. We've searched around the neighborhood and we failed to encounter anyone suspicious looking. It's unlikely that we'll ever find them now."

He put his headwear back on. "We've looked around the room, and like you said, nothing was stolen or damaged. We've also tried talking to your daughter with you, she was uninjured, she didn't appear distressed at all, and she refused to tell us anything about the perpetrators.

"Mrs. Akiyama, you said that you briefly saw one of them as they were leaving, but didn't remember anything about the appearance.

"You also said that heard them talking, which means that they were there for a period of time, yet as far as anyone can tell, they didn't do anything malicious. I've been on the force in this town for almost twelve years now, and this is one of the stranger cases I have encountered. I'm sorry, but we as the police have done everything we can, there is nothing more to go on."

Mio's father stepped forward. "We understand, thank you for your time gentlemen."

"Have a safe night." The officer bid them farewell, turning for his colleagues who were waiting for him by their cars.

The emergency lights finally ceased as the vehicles sped off in the direction they had come from. Mio's parents secured both locks on the front door as they closed it behind them, they walked upstairs, heading for their daughter's room. The lights inside were out, and the girl was soundly asleep in her bed. Not wanting to disturb her, the pair shut the door, their own night would no doubt be restless...

* * *

><p>The morning of Saturday, May 4 1996, had crept up on the certain town. Tainaka Ritsu found herself awake. Despite the throbbing pain in her eyes, she decided against going back to sleep and instead inspected her surroundings, hoping that maybe yesterday was just a bad dream. The first thing to catch her eyes was the face of her friend, Hirasawa Yui, who was apparently sleeping under the same covers as she. The guitarist's eyes were closed, she was giving off a faint sound of slow breathing, evidently still asleep.<p>

Ritsu pulled out one of her hands from under the covers, feeling her forehead. Sure enough, the bandage was still there, and the stinging sensation from the wound under it could not be mistaken. It was now apparent to the drummer that she had not woken up back in her old world.

She crawled slowly off the futon trying not to wake her friend, who was a much heavier sleeper. Standing up, Ritsu found herself in her underwear, she looked over herself. Several smaller bruises could be found on both her legs and arms, all of them producing more or less pain on contact. Next to Yui's side of the futon was a pair of nearly identical Sakura High uniforms, identical in both appearance and having dirt all over them. The sight brought even more weight on the drummer's eyelids.

As she looked the other way, Ritsu found their host, Yamanaka Sawako, in her bed. The long haired girl's eyes were open, she appeared to be staring at the ceiling.

"Morning…" The future teacher said as she turned to Ritsu. "Did you sleep?"

"Sort of…" Ritsu replied groggily.

"Yeah, me neither…" Sawako flouted.

"Talk quietly, Yui's still asleep." The drummer added.

"Do you want to sleep more?" Sawako asked her.

The caramel haired girl glanced at the wall-mounted clock. Seven thirty. "No…" She decided.

Sawako now also got out from under her sheets. The lack of sleep made her slightly dizzy, but she managed to walk to Ritsu. She looked over Yui, the shorter haired girl had subconsciously pulled the entire cover to herself now, with only the top of her head visible. Sawako's already tired face cringed as she saw the pair of uniforms beside the guitarist.

"I hate to say this, but we're going to have to wash these uniforms." She said with a quiet yawn in the middle. "You've got nothing else to wear, though."

"I'll be fine Sawa-chan, it's pretty warm in here." Ritsu said as she walked over to the window, glancing outside.

Instantly the drummer was downed even further. The sky had been repainted gray overnight, and the clouds appeared to be stretching endlessly on. The entirety of outside seemed to be drenched in gloom.

Letting out a heavy breath, Ritsu turned away, back to Sawako. "What about your parents though? I wouldn't really want to walk around them like this."

Reminded again of the other girl's state of undress, Sawako's eyes twitched slightly, but she quickly dismissed any other thoughts as she noticed Ritsu's injuries. "I'd be more worried about them seeing those bruises, but I think we'll be fine, my parents usually never wake before nine on Saturdays. Are you okay though?"

"Yeah, I'll manage, it's not so bad."

"I hope not… Come to think of it, I never usually wake up before nine on Saturdays either… I really need something warm to drink, do you want anything?" Sawako asked quietly.

"Tea would be nice…"

"Okay, I'll get us some." Sawako said as she went for the door.

"Can you make a cup for Yui too?" Ritsu stopped her.

"Sure."

As the drummer was left alone, Yui's breaths started appearing louder. Ritsu sat on Sawako's now empty bed, she rubbed her eyes, trying to shake the remnant of the fatigue off. A stirring sound startled the dazed girl, but it was just Yui turning in her sleep. I hope you're sleeping better than we did, Ritsu thought.

Some ten minutes later Sawako returned, carefully carrying three ordinary cylindrical cups. She handed one to Ritsu, set one down on her nightstand and kept the third one for herself. These cups hardly compared to Mugi's classy tea sets, but as soon as she took a sip, the generally warm feeling and the sweet aroma hit almost the exact spot for the drummer.

She exhaled after the gulp. "Thanks Sawa-chan, this is pretty good."

"How are we going to wash the uniforms without waking your parents though?" She mused.

Sawako took in some of her own drink. "Well… we could do it by hand… I mean how hard can it be? We just put some warm water and detergent into a washbowl, right?"

"… Right." Ritsu tried to agree. "What about Yui?"

"Let her sleep I guess. She has tea waiting for her when she wakes up."

As the two of them finished their drinks, they collected the dirtied clothing and went for the bathroom, leaving Yui alone in her sleep…

* * *

><p>The guitarist found herself back in the hallway of her high school, wearing her uniform again. She was alone, walking past groups of other students and passing a multitude of doors, she kept on going, unable to discern just where she wanted to be. The presence of other students was decreasing as Yui walked, soon she was left alone in a hallway that by this time seemed to be looping around itself.<p>

However, the lone girl finally encountered something, the stairs that would lead her to the music room. Standing at the base of these stairs was a short girl with a pair of long black twin-tails, her back turned.

Yui did not need to think, she instantly broke into a run, tackling the other girl into a hug and nearly sending both of them tumbling down. "Azu-nyan!" The brunette yelled with a smile.

The girl gasped in surprise as Yui collided with her, she turned around, it was indeed Nakano Azusa, but the look on her face was one of surprised distress, Yui had never seen this expression on her kouhai before.

"W-Who are you? What are you doing?" The shorter girl yelled, her tone of clear anger.

Yui was taken aback by the venom in the other voice. "A-Azu-nyan? What's wrong? Why are you angry?"

"I don't know you! Leave me alone!" Azusa spat, before running up the stairs and out of Yui's sight.

Yui was rendered momentarily stuck in place by the shock, but as she regained her senses she ran after her underclassman. "Azu-nyan, wait!"

Despite going as fast as she could, Yui could catch no sign of the other girl as she scaled the stairs. Soon she found herself at the end of them, to her left was the door to the music room and in front of her, a door led to the showroom where they had once held a tea party for Mio's fan club. The door to the showroom was wide open.

As reason would dictate, Yui stepped inside the showroom, however it appeared to be empty, with several of the brunette's calls to Azusa going completely unanswered. All attempts to look for the other girl meeting nothing, Yui dejectedly exited back to the hallway, and was now standing in front of the music room, the home of the Light Music Club. Azusa had to be in here.

Yui reached for the handle and… it wouldn't budge at all. The door was locked. It was then that the guitarist saw a small notice on the door. There was a single word written on it. 'Disbanded.'

Enveloped by scared confusion, Yui backed away slowly from the door. She looked all around herself, there was nobody there, she was completely alone, surrounded by empty silence. Yui could feel sweat appearing on her forehead, unable to stand anymore, she sat in the corner adjacent to the stairs. Clasping her own legs with her arms, her eyes were downcast on her feet. She shut them...

* * *

><p>Yui's eyes reopened to let her know that she was now lying under covers in a fetal position. Upon further look-over she realized that she was back in Sawako's room and that she had in fact never left it, the beads of sweat on her were still quite real however.<p>

The guitarist frantically climbed out of her covers and looked around the room for her friend and their teacher, finding neither. In her daze, Yui was hit by another onset of fear. Just then she heard the door open behind her. It was Ritsu, wearing a yellow bathrobe.

The drummer looked on at Yui, slightly aghast. The other girl was drenched in sweat, her hair was an utter mess and the look on her face was that of a lost puppy, the bruises that she also had received last night did nothing to fix the impression.

"God Yui… you look terrible, what's wrong?"

"I thought you were gone Ricchan…" Yui managed in her now diminishing shock as she sat back down on the futon.

"Where could I have gone…?" Ritsu wondered as she sat next to the other girl, putting one hand on her shoulder.

Yui was breathing heavily, but she glanced at the clock, it was about eight twenty three. Sawako now entered the room as well, she immediately walked up to the other two, asking about Yui.

"I think she had a nightmare, she's pretty shaken up." Ritsu said.

"Well get her back under those covers, she'll catch a cold like this." Sawako went for the cup that was on her nightstand as Ritsu wrapped Yui back into the sheets.

"Here." She handed the cup to Yui, who took it in both hands.

The guitarist took the tea in slowly and quietly, it had gotten lukewarm by now, but the sweet drink still provided Yui with some comfort. She proceeded to retell her dream to her companions as her composure returned. Sawako found it slightly hard to understand, but Ritsu understood perfectly, and the thought tore at the back of her mind.

"We washed your uniforms." Sawako began. "I think we got all the dirt out of them, but I don't know how long it will take them to dry, you won't have anything to wear in the meantime."

Sawako looked over the mess that Yui was. "Say, do you want to wash up too? Ritsu already did when we were done with the uniforms."

The guitarist nodded. "Yeah…"

"Okay, I'll go get the bath ready for you, wait here."

As Sawako left her room, she took a detour upstairs to where her parents' room was. She slowly opened the door, as she peered her parents appeared to still be fast asleep in their bed. Hoping that it would stay like that for a while longer, the long-haired brunette ran back downstairs for the bathroom.

Meanwhile, back in Sawako's room, Ritsu found her broken headband on the floor. She picked it up again and eyed it melancholically.

"Ricchan… your headband broke." Yui noticed.

"Yeah, probably when we fell last night." The drummer sighed. "I'll have to get another one."

"Don't worry Ricchan, I think you look cute without it." Yui tried to assure her with a smile.

"Huh? Really?"

Sawako got back into the room at that point. "Yui, the bath's ready for you. Go get in there, I'll find a bathrobe for you." She said as she went for the closet again.

Yui wobbled out of the room and towards the bathroom, inside it, the atmosphere was warm and humid, the bathtub was filled with steaming water. Yui managed to get her remaining clothing off and slip into the warm fluid. The temperature was just right, and the guitarist found herself immediately relaxed, she exhaled loudly as the heat encased her.

The daze was only momentarily interrupted when Sawako entered the room to hang a red robe by the towels. "Here, put this on when you're done." She said.

Losing track of time, Yui spent an upwards of thirty minutes just soaking, thinking of nothing in particular. It was only when the water lost its warmness that the guitarist managed to climb out. Her vitality almost completely restored, the brunette grabbed a bottle of shampoo and got her hair back into a clean state. She got her undergarments back on and the robe Sawako left her over them as she was about to leave.

Exiting the bathroom, Yui ran into Sawako's father, wearing a robe of his own. "Good morning, Yui-san, washing up?" He greeted her.

"Yes, Yamanaka-san! Allow me to thank you again for your hospitality!" She returned.

"It's quite alright." The spectacled man said. "Your friends are just about to have breakfast, why don't you go join them?"

"I will!"

The guitarist found Sawako and Ritsu sitting together in the dining room.

"Hey Yui, feeling better?" Ritsu asked her.

"Yes Ricchan, thanks!"

"Yeah, did wonders for me too."

"And thanks Sawa-chan, you're really considerate!"

"What kind of a teacher would I be if I didn't help two of my hopeless students." Sawako shot her a smile.

By the time the three girls finished up the breakfast that Sawako's mother made them, Yui and Ritsu's uniforms had dried up. Sawako chose to don her own uniform as well, to keep with the theme she supposed. With everyone fully clothed again, they found themselves at the exit.

"Are you girls going out?" Sawako's mother asked them as she walked by.

"Yeah, we're just going to… go around a bit."

"Shouldn't you take some umbrellas with you, it looks like it could rain." The older woman told them.

"I don't think we'll be very long." Sawako assured.

"Alright, just be careful."

Excusing themselves, the three girls stepped outside…

* * *

><p>Somewhat before that time, the four year old Mio was still in her bed. She had woken up almost half an hour ago, but did not get up, instead she just lay there, thinking. What had happened last night was almost surreal, she had properly met two girls that she had seen earlier that day, two girls she could not possibly have known, but somehow it felt like she did, and they gave every impression that they knew her too.<p>

The small girl did not want to talk to her parents about it, she did not know how to explain any of what was going through her head and they clearly found the two girls to be dangerous. Most of Mio's thoughts revolved around what could have possibly happened to prompt the appearance of the two. It was clear that something awful had happened to them, and that it was somehow connected to her, but how, Mio did not know. The caramel haired one, who identified herself as 'Ritsu' had said that the cause of everything was the event at the kindergarten. Mio wanted nothing more than the ability to speak to the two other girls again, but did not know how to make that possible. She decided that it would probably be best to just go back to the place where she had first met both of them, the kindergarten, and the best way to do that would be to ask her mother to take her back.

Determined, the small girl hopped out of bed. She went through her morning routine by herself, like she would every day, then met her mother downstairs. The adult was in the dining room, with a tired expression on her face.

"Mio…" She tried to greet her daughter.

"Good morning, mama." The girl answered.

"Are you alright Mio? Do you want to tell me what happened last night?"

Mio expected this. "Mama… I'm fine, they didn't do anything to me."

"Who? I don't understand this! Who was there? And why?" The anxiety and lack of sleep caused Mio's mother to lose her composure again.

Not wanting to falter, Mio kept talking. "Mama… I can't explain this to you. Please, can we go back to that kindergarten?"

"… What? You… want to go back there now?"

"Yes…"

The mother stood up, slowly walked over to her daughter and embraced her. "Oh my god… Mio, what could they have done to you?"

"Mama, please… can we go back?"

"No… of course not. I don't know what they did to you, but until I understand this you are not leaving this house!" The older woman's tone was slightly angry now.

Mio found it harder to breathe faced with this reaction, her mother was acting unreasonable. It was obvious that she would not be able to convince the overprotective woman otherwise, Mio silently turned around and walked away. Tears formed in the girl's eyes as she walked back to her room, entering it, she opened the window wide in spite of the sore weather outside, and sat down. She had to somehow see Ritsu again…

* * *

><p>Ritsu, along with her two companions, had just stepped into the cheerless outdoors. As she was standing on the walkway in front of Sawako's house, she looked up at the boundless overcast in the sky, then back to the two girls.<p>

"Do you two have any thoughts about what we could do?" Sawako asked.

"Not really Sawa-chan…" Yui responded.

The drummer contemplated for a while. "Can we… go over to Mio's house? I just want to see it."

"Is that really a good idea? Wasn't the police called last night? Did anyone see you?"

"I don't know… I just have the feeling that I should be there." Ritsu said, indeed she was feeling this way. "We don't have to approach it, maybe just take a look from the other side of the road."

"Well, I'm not sure, but okay, maybe we can think of something on the way there." The future teacher said as the three of them took off down the street.

Dread was in the air around Mio and Ritsu's neighborhood. All three girls could feel it, and their suspicions were conformed when they saw police cars in front of Mio's house.

Sawako observed from the distance in disbelief. "The police are still there? Just what have you two done last night?"

"Nothing, Sawa-chan! We just talked to Mio-chan, that's it!" Yui said truthfully.

"Something's really wrong about this…" Ritsu stated. "Let's get over there."

"Are you trying to get arrested? I'm pretty sure they're there because of you." Sawako tried to rationalize.

"No, something else is going on here, and I have to know what." The drummer said, and took off on her own.

Not knowing what else to do, Yui and Sawako followed her, all three of them were now standing across the street from Mio's home. Three police cars were parked on the walkway opposing the road, their emergency lights were off, and a lone policewoman stood guard beside.

The woman noticed all three of them, but appeared uninterested. "Are they… really not here because of you?" Sawako quietly asked.

Without saying anything, Ritsu stepped onto the road, intent on crossing it.

"Ricchan!" The yell came from Yui, Ritsu turned to her side, a vehicle of black color was coming at her at very high speed, not showing any desire to slow down.

Ritsu instinctively jumped forward, the car narrowly missing her and speeding off down the street. The drummer grunted as she impacted the road, she was instantly reminded of last night's fall. Reopening her eyes, the girl found the female officer above her.

"Hey, are you alright?" The woman asked Ritsu, offering the drummer a hand.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." Ritsu accepted the gesture and was pulled back up to her feet.

Sawako and Yui now ran up to Ritsu. "Ricchan! Are you hurt?" Yui frantically asked.

"I'm okay Yui, it's nothing." The girl said as the officer led her to the walkway on the other side, the other two following behind.

Ritsu now got a good look at her helper, the woman appeared to be in her early twenties, a rookie on the force. Not very tall, she stood no higher than the three girls around her, her long black hair was tied in a ponytail on the back of her head. The drummer found herself almost reminded of Mio, but unlike Ritsu's friend, this woman's eyes were amber, nearly identical to Ritsu's own, only a tad darker.

"Did anyone catch that car's registration?" The woman asked as they were safely off the road.

Nobody did however, causing an annoyed grumble from the ponytailed officer. "Jeez, he must have been going over 60… how irresponsible."

Ritsu came forward now. "Could you tell me though... what happened here?"

"Huh?" The woman eyed Ritsu curiously. "Well… it seems this family's daughter ran away from home… we were going to organize a search party, my colleagues are inside getting the description of the girl." She paused. "Do you know these people?"

Ritsu could not respond, she experienced a violent convulsion in her stomach as she got the news, stumbling back a few steps. Yui and Sawako looked little better, Yui's expression was of pure worry and the longer haired girl was wearing a distressed frown.

"Are you three feeling alright?" The officer asked them, now worried herself.

"We'll be fine." Ritsu deadpanned and then just walked away.

"Ricchan!" Yui yelled and immediately went after the drummer.

Sawako turned around, then back to the woman. "Sorry for the trouble." She threw before following the other girls, leaving the officer with her confusion.

"Ricchan, stop!" Yui got in front of the drummer.

Ritsu did stop, and gave an exasperated sigh. "Yui… what are we even doing? Everything we've done has only made things worse."

"Stop talking like that, we don't even know what exactly happened." Sawako caught up to them. "Ritsu. Look at me."

Ritsu turned her attention to the spectacled girl. "Self-pity is the worst thing we can do right now." Sawako continued. "Let's look over this, what reason would Mio have to run away?"

"Sawa-chan… I don't know, this is really unlike Mio."

"Did Mio-chan… go looking for us?" Yui pitched.

Both Sawako and Ritsu turned to Yui. "Is that possible?" Sawako asked.

"I'm not sure Sawa-chan, like Ricchan said, this isn't really like Mio-chan. But I know that Mio-chan is a good person, I believe she may have left because she wanted to find us and help us. She tried to talk to us last night, but she couldn't because we were forced to escape."

"But… does she even know where to look for you? You said that Mio was a smart girl, I don't think she would leave if she didn't know where she wanted to go." The future teacher figured.

"You're right…" Ritsu pinched her chin. "But where-" Then something clicked inside her. "The kindergarten!"

The drummer instantly broke into a run. Sawako and Yui looked at each other, nodded and then broke after the girl. Yui's legs pained her as she tried to keep up with Ritsu, but she kept going, she was sure that her friend was going through the same. The trio made a circle around the block, as they were about to reach the wall that separated the kindergarten's front yard from the walkway, they stopped.

In spite of all the running, all three girls had their breathing completely cut off because of the scene in front of them. About twenty meters away, the car that had nearly run Ritsu down earlier was stopped, the trunk of it was open and standing next to it were two men, one taller than the other. The taller man was holding Mio in his arms, one of his hands was covering the girl's mouth. Mio looked completely unable to put up any kind of struggle, he stuffed her hurriedly into the trunk and shut it violently over her. The two men yelled something completely unintelligible at each other before running into the vehicle and driving off.

The three other girls stood there, Yui's eyes were filling with tears again, and none of them were able to speak, until Ritsu finally did. "No." She simply said, shaking her head. "I will not let this happen! Come on!" She ran in the direction that the kidnappers went.

"R-Ricchan, you can't catch up to them on foot!" Yui managed through tears.

"I'm not trying to." Ritsu said, while alarmed, her voice still held a degree of calmness to it.

Sawako ran after both of them, but didn't say anything, she was busy calling the police on the cell phone that her parents got her, this was probably the first time she ever used it. She reported the kidnapping and gave the best description of the vehicle that she could, a black Toyota.

Meanwhile Ritsu kept her eye on said vehicle as long as she could, that is until it reached an intersection and went right, as Ritsu had expected.

As Sawako lowered her phone she realized that she was standing back in front of her own house.

"Open the garage door." Ritsu told her.

"Huh?" Sawako blinked.

"Hurry, we don't have much time!" Ritsu urged.

Sawako did as told, behind the door, the DeLorean was still situated as left the night before.

Ritsu quickly ran to the door and got into the driver seat. "Come on you two!"

Suppressing any questions they had, Yui and Sawako got into the passenger seat together. Wasting no time, Ritsu turned the key, shifted into reverse and quickly pulled the car out onto the road.

"You want us… to follow them?" Sawako asked between breaths.

"I know where they're going." Ritsu said as she put the car into D, speeding away from Sawako's home.

"They went right at this intersection, they're leaving town and going on the intercity." The drummer said as followed the road right.

"Ritsu… just what do you think we can accomplish by doing this?"

"Sawa-chan, I don't know, but I can't let this happen. I have no idea what those two intend to do with Mio, but whatever it is I won't let them! All of this is happening because of me, and if I'm going to suffer for it, fine, but Mio didn't do anything, she doesn't deserve this! The last thing I did for the old Mio was ruin her birthday for her, and now I got the young her kidnapped. It's time I started making up to Mio for all the trouble I cause her!"

Ritsu shot a grin at the two, the best she could while keeping her attention on the road.

"Ricchan…" Yui's face instantly lit up, she tried to hug the drummer, but the other girl stopped her.

"Whoa, easy Yui, not while I'm driving."

Sawako sighed through a smile. "My parents are gonna kill me… Okay, I don't know what you have in mind, but I'll go with you."

"Me too captain! I'll follow you to the end!" Yui exclaimed, all notice of tears now gone.

"So what ****_do_ you have in mind?" Sawako asked.

"We can definitely catch up to them in this thing, I'm having trouble keeping it under the speed limit here because of how powerful it is."

"Are you certain that this is the way they're going though?"

"It has to be. There was no other road they could have taken. They will have to stop eventually, when they do, we can call the police and tell them where. You have that phone of yours, right?"

"Yeah." Sawako confirmed. "We have to catch up to them quickly before we lose them though. And, this might not be the best time, but I feel that I should remind everyone that we're driving around without a license."

Ritsu kept under the speed limit while they were still in town, buildings were beginning to get scarce as they pushed forward, soon it was only a few billboards and then nothing, they were now on a country road, one that was mostly empty. Immediately Ritsu hit the throttle, and the DeLorean zoomed forward.

Specks of rain started appearing on the windshield. Ritsu cursed silently as she lowered her speed and turned on the wipers.

_Hang on Mio… I'm coming for you…_

* * *

><p><em>Bottom<em>_ A/N_: I'm not entirely happy with this chapter, it just feels like it could have been done a little smoother. I hope it gave you some entertainment anyway.


	6. A Race Against Time

_Top__ A/N_: Good day, readers. Some important stuff happened as well as some not so important stuff, but in any case this chapter took pretty long to be written because of it, I apologize for the delay to those of you who may care.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6 – A Race Against Time<strong>

A wide green landscape extended a few kilometers north of a certain town, in the middle of it there was a road going further north, surrounded by grass. A way west of the road, several hills could be seen, and to the east, a thick forest. The sky above was still covered in gray, and a light drizzle had rendered the scene damp.

The road itself was mostly devoid of vehicles, save a pair that was racing along. Leading was a compact blue one and tailgating behind it a black Toyota station wagon. Despite the conditions of the road, the black vehicle moved onto the right track and suddenly accelerated, quickly overtaking the smaller blue one and nearly ramming it as it returned onto its designated track. The compact's horn went off instantly, but was quickly ignored as the other car pushed forward.

Not a minute later, the small blue vehicle found itself being passed again, this time by a car of a distinct metallic silver color. The silver car stuck in the right track long after passing the other car before finally going back onto the left.

"Ritsu! You're not supposed to stay in the other track so long when passing, be careful!" The voice belonged to one Yamanaka Sawako.

"Right, right I'm sorry!" The unlicensed driver returned.

"Ritsu… I don't think this is going to work, we've passed four other cars so far and there's no sign of them." Sawako told her.

The drummer turned to face her spectacled friend. "Come on Sawa-chan, don't give up on me yet, I'm su-"

"Ricchan, look!" Yui interrupted her.

Ritsu and Sawako's eyes returned to the road, they were approaching a black station wagon. The drummer's heartbeat froze momentarily.

"Ritsu, slow down! You'll hit them!" Sawako tried to break her out of her daze.

As Ritsu managed to regain her senses, she equalized speeds a few meters short of the other car.

"I told you we'd find them." She stated.

"What do we do now Ricchan?" Yui asked.

"We'll keep trailing them, they have to stop somewhere eventually."

The DeLorean kept following the other vehicle, with rain still lightly hitting the windshield of it. Far off in the distance however, overcast was menacingly thick and a much darker shade of gray.

"Keep your distance Ritsu, but don't _look_ like you're trying to keep your distance." The spectacled girl tried to advise.

The drummer simply shot her companion a narrow, unsure stare.

"I don't know… drive casual!"

The DeLorean was now trailing about a hundred meters behind. The road was still surrounded by mostly nature; only passing an electricity transmission line reminded the three girls that there was still civilization nearby. Ritsu knew that the intercity road was a somewhat long, but as she recalled, they would soon reach a small town.

The road kept on going until a blue traffic sign appeared beside it, indicating entry to a settlement. Buildings quickly started appearing on both sides of the road, and soon a semaphored intersection could be seen ahead.

"This is not good, if we keep getting in behind them at these intersections, they might get suspicious." The future teacher said, she was looking on at the light in front of them, all red.

"Don't worry Sawa-chan." Ritsu said, sounding confident.

The Toyota got over into the far right lane, apparently set on taking a right turn, Ritsu however took the DeLorean into the forward lane, behind another vehicle.

"Hey! What are you doing? They're going that way!" Sawako quickly protested as she pointed at the car they were following.

"Don't worry I said!" The drummer still sounded confident.

Several other vehicles got into both lanes. Soon yellow lit up, and then died along with red, both replaced by green. The car in front of the DeLorean proceeded forward, and the black vehicle took a right as intended.

Ritsu didn't move at all, and both of her companions were now gazing at her, waiting for her move. The horn of the car behind the time traversing vehicle could now be heard, but the drummer paid it no mind. She waited for another vehicle from the right lane to make the turn, and then quickly cut off the next one, making a right turn herself. This caused more horns to go off, and both Yui and Sawako's expressions to be replaced by shock at the sudden burst of acceleration.

Still, the turn was made, and the silver vehicle was now back on the trail of the black one, with another separating the two from each other.

"Ritsu… you're nuts! I don't want to die!" The long haired girl's protests continued.

"Come on, cut me a break here! They no longer think we're behind them, right?" Ritsu tried to return.

"Ugh… right." Sawako gave up.

All three vehicles would keep going straight for a period of time, and as they did, the rain subdued but the sky remained a dull gray. Soon a gas station came into view from the distance; it was situated to the right of the road. The turn signal lit up on the station wagon, it was going to take the turn to the station. Ritsu could not see this immediately because of the vehicle in between, but all of them were forced to stop as the black vehicle waited to make the right turn and the drummer quickly realized what was happening.

"They're stopping here." She informed her companions, giving a right turn signal herself.

All three of them shot a look towards the station, there were several pumps in it, as well as a medium sized parking lot on the far right, it could accommodate about ten vehicles of average size, and four spaces were already taken up.

As the traffic in the right lane cleared up, the Toyota made the turn and the vehicle behind it sped off forward. Ritsu however waited a while longer even though the right lane was currently devoid of traffic, and the vehicles behind the DeLorean had given up on horns at this point, simply passing it instead.

All three of them looked on. "Ricchan, they're going into the parking lot!" Yui said.

Indeed, the kidnappers' car entered the farthest empty parking space. As it stopped there, the DeLorean finally followed in its wake, and Ritsu parked it in the space farthest away from the other vehicle, so that several other cars separated the two.

"I'm going to call the police and tell them where we are." Sawako quickly dug out her cell phone.

Meanwhile Yui turned to her drummer friend. "Ricchan, why do you think they stopped here?"

"I don't know Yui; let's hope they don't immediately drive off again."

The two time travelers waited a minute for Sawako to finish her phone call. The minute seemed to last forever as the future teacher tried her best to remain calm as she spoke to the police. When the minute was over, she hung up and turned to the two girls. "I told the police where we are, they said they'd have someone over as soon as they can."

The mechanical sound of the DeLorean's doors went off at that point, it was Ritsu opening hers. "I'm going to go see what they're up to."

"Wait! What if they saw us earlier?" Sawako tried to stop her.

"I doubt it; they were in quite a hurry."

"Ugh… I'm coming with you!" Sawako turned to open her own door. As she stepped out, Yui followed.

All three girls were now standing on the walkway next to the parking lot; they were reluctant to approach the car they had been following. As they stood there, the door of it opened though, and one of the men they had seen earlier stepped out. He was tall and muscular, and his attire was simple, a pair of black pants and a white shirt, they were unable to discern any of his other features from the distance. Right away, he went for the convenience store that was part of the station.

"Let's follow him!" Ritsu said. "Yui, you stay here, guard the time machine."

"Yes captain!" Yui gave a salute.

Ritsu and Sawako ran off towards the store, and the door soon shut behind them, leaving Yui alone with their ride. The guitarist was about to sit on the hood of the time machine, but then realized that it's probably wet from the rain. Instead she turned to the dark colored vehicle, which was still stationary in its spot.

Yui felt an itch that she could not rid herself of, she went around the back of the DeLorean and approached the kidnappers' vehicle from behind, now standing by the trunk of it.

"Mio-chan!" She tried to call.

No response came, the guitarist pressed her head against the surface of the car despite the water covering it but she still couldn't hear anything.

Then distress came, the door of the car opened. Yui could hear it; her instinct told her to run to the other side of the vehicle, where she crouched against it, getting her uniform wet. She didn't care about it though, fear struck her intensely, and she stayed there for a while, breathing quietly. Not hearing anything else, eventually she looked down and under the vehicle, she could see the shoes of the other man, he wasn't moving or saying anything, apparently he just stood there.

Suddenly though, his voice became audible, he was muttering something to himself, but Yui couldn't understand it, it wasn't in Japanese.

Yui managed to suppress her fear and moved away from the vehicle as she stayed out of sight, she returned to the DeLorean.

Meanwhile the pair of Ritsu and Sawako was in the station convenience store, and the drummer was staring intensely at her target, that is until she was pulled away by her accomplice.

"Don't stare at him like that, he'll notice you!"

Sawako dragged the drummer to a refrigerator, inside of which were a variety of sandwiches.

"Man, I could go for a snack, why don't we get some of these?" Ritsu said.

"Um… yeah, sure." Her companion confirmed.

Opening the refrigerator, Ritsu grabbed three at random and then they went for the counter. The man they were spying on was already there, they would have to stand behind him. Both of them felt nervous at this prospect, but got in line all the same.

They couldn't make out his features very good, being that he had his back turned, except that he was much taller than either of them.

As he approached the counter, he spoke in accented Japanese, quickly paid for whatever he was buying, and turned to leave. Ritsu tried to do the same, but as she looked into her wallet, she found it empty. A grunt came from Sawako, and she placed some money onto the counter instead.

With their items in tow, the two girls ran outside. They could see the two men talking to each other, with the tall one obscuring the other. The two girls walked past them, trying not to look directly at them, the kidnappers were speaking to each other in a language that Ritsu couldn't understand.

Yui was standing next to the silver vehicle as Sawako and Ritsu had left her.

"Yui! Think fast!" The drummer shot, tossing Yui a sandwich.

The short haired brunette was clearly distressed however, she fumbled with a yelp and the sandwich dropped to the wet pavement, thankfully it was wrapped in plastic.

Yui bent to retrieve it. "Thanks, Ricchan." She shot to the drummer.

Ritsu noticed that Yui's back was wet then. "Yui, what happened? Why are you wet?"

"Ricchan… I tried to talk to Mio-chan… but I don't think she could hear me… Then the man almost saw me."

The caramel-haired girl ran to her guitarist friend and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Yui, don't do things like that."

Yui just sniffed.

"Look," Ritsu continued. "Mio's going to be fine, we'll save her! I promise that to both you and her!"

Yui simply slowly pulled her friend into a hug which the latter gladly returned.

"Ricchan…"

As the two separated, Sawako took a stance in front of them. "Guys, they were speaking Chinese."

"Huh?" The other two said in unison.

"Yeah, I can understand a bit of it. I'm pretty sure they mentioned some kind of forest, but I don't know what about it. Maybe-"

She was suddenly interrupted, by the sound of an engine revving up. It was the kidnappers.

"They're leaving, we have to go!" Sawako quickly yelled.

The three girls wasted no time, they all got back into their seats and Ritsu turned the key, quickly reversing the DeLorean out of the parking spot. By the time she did, the Toyota was already waiting to rejoin the traffic on the road. The time vehicle went for the turning point, but the other car had already made the turn by this time and two other vehicles had passed by the DeLorean before Ritsu could enter the road.

"Can you see them?" Sawako asked the caramel-haired drummer.

"No… they're behind those two." Ritsu pointed at the two vehicles in front of them.

Glancing at the rearview mirror, Ritsu could see red lights. The police were entering the gas station, minutes too late to resolve the situation. The drummer sighed annoyedly in frustration, but didn't say anything to her companions.

"I don't think I can pass them. Yui, Sawa-chan, keep your eyes peeled for the Toyota, if they make a turn, we can't lose them!" She said instead.

"Yes captain!" Yui acknowledged, pressing the side of an open palm to her forehead, as if to improve her vision.

The DeLorean kept following the road straight for a period, but the two vehicles in front of it were slowing it down, and the kidnappers had sped on ahead. Sweat drops were forming on Ritsu's now bangs-covered forehead. In a moment of desperation she reached a decision.

The throttle was pushed down as far as it could go, and the steering wheel slowly turned right. The time vehicle realigned into the right track, quickly gaining velocity. The pupils on the eyes of the two of Ritsu's companions had dilated; another vehicle was headed straight for them from the opposite direction. Yui hugged Sawako and pressed her face against the future teacher in fear, reminded of how she and Ritsu ended up in this time period. Meanwhile, all notion of embarrassment at such an act was gone from the longer haired brunette, and she hugged the other guitarist back, her eyes focused on the pair of headlights coming at them.

Ritsu however decisively held on to the wheel, a screeching noise could be heard from brakes of the vehicle coming at her, but she had no such thought. Looking quickly to her left, she could see that she was past the two vehicles. She swiftly steered left, the inertial force sending Yui and Sawako into the door by them. The DeLorean whizzed past the vehicle coming at it accompanied by the sound of its horn and missing it by no more than ten centimeters. The sound of the horn shifted out of existence as the silver vehicle sped on and Sawako remained squashed between the door and Yui.

"Ritsu! What the heck are you doing? I don't want to die doing this!" The will-be teacher yelled somewhat incoherently, following up with heavy breathing as Yui and her separated.

"Relax… we're fine!" The drummer returned. "What else could I have done, we were going to lose them!" She said enthusiastically, honestly amazed that she had pulled that off.

"Ugh… I knew I was going to regret this…" Sawako growled.

"Sawa-chan… come on, stay with us! We're doing this for Mio-chan, we have to!" Yui tried to encourage her.

"I don't even know this girl…" Sawako muttered dejectedly.

In truth, Sawako was having conflicting thoughts running through her. She was beginning to feel woe for ever getting involved with this, but her consciousness was telling her that she shouldn't, that it was a good thing to do. She gave a loud exhale, but didn't say anything.

Passing a multitude of buildings, some of which were shops but most appearing to be apartment buildings, the DeLorean ran into the vehicle it was trailing, finding it stopped at a right turn with its signal light indicating it was intent on taking it. Ritsu stopped her car as soon as she saw it, not wanting to come into view. It would definitely raise suspicion of they kept appearing out of nowhere, the DeLorean was very distinct.

"There they are… they're going right here." Ritsu relayed what she was seeing.

"Do you know where they're going, Ricchan?" Yui asked the drummer.

"No, Yui… I've only been here once or twice before, and that was in the future! I think I was just passing through with my dad."

"I hope we don't get lost in the middle of nowhere…" Sawako added.

Rain started picking up as Ritsu waited afar, the vehicles she has passed not a moment ago catching up to her again, and finally the station wagon made the turn. The drummer didn't wait any longer, she pushed the silver vehicle forward and then followed right.

Ritsu could see the kidnappers far ahead, she kept her distance while following. The city atmosphere on this road quickly diminished and a road sign soon appeared, indicating that they were exiting it. Another one appeared soon after, allowing for higher velocities, something that the black Toyota gladly accepted, leaving the drummer no choice but to take after it.

The road quickly became surrounded by wilderness again, and the dark gray overcast was now just above it, the rain was pelting the windows of the DeLorean, so much that it was hard to see, even with the car's wipers working their hardest.

The DeLorean's headbandless driver was not allowed to slow however, because the car in front of her did not seem to be bothered by the heavy rain at all.

"Ricchan… please, be careful…" Yui meekly said.

"Yui… I'm sorry, I can't slow down. If they get far from us we may lose them completely. I'll be as careful as I can." Ritsu tried to reassure the best she could.

Not a moment after a blinding flash hit all three girls. Yui in particular covered her eyes with the palms of her hands again, and none of them were sure where the light had come from. But soon a loud bang occurred, confirming the source of the flash to be a thunderbolt. Their vision returned, just in time for Ritsu to see the curve in front of them.

The drummer hit the brake, but the car did not slow down at all. The rain was so heavy that so much water got under the tyres of the DeLorean and the road below, all notion of traction was gone. Sharp fear struck Ritsu's abdomen as she realized what was happening, her father had warned her about this many times. Her vehicle had become an uncontrolled sled and the curve was closing in quickly. Ritsu could hear the panicked yells of her companions, but she knew there was nothing she could do anymore, the car's wheels locked up when she hit the brake.

Ritsu looked in front of her, ignoring the yelling, she had to somehow minimize the damage this was going to do. She looked at the speedometer, but it was almost completely dead, the drummer was now certain that her wheels had locked up. She gazed through the windshield again next, seeing the grass field in front of the car, it was on level with the road and mostly flat. In a desperate attempt not to have the car turn over, she straightened the steering wheel and shifted into neutral.

Wheels regained some traction as they made contact with the grass, and the rough transition made all of the girls jump up from their seats. As soon as Ritsu was settled back down, she pressed lightly on the brake, and the car eventually came to a stop in the middle of the meadow, spinning slightly to the left and ending up tilted a few degrees to the right before landing safely back on all four wheels.

The inside of the vehicle became quiet as it settled down, all that could be heard was the sound of the raindrops impacting it and the heavy breaths of the drummer, her two companions gazed at her. Yui looked extremely worried, while Sawako looked extremely angry.

"Guys… I'm sorry, that was really stupid. I shouldn't have let that happen." Ritsu tried to apologize before anyone else could say anything.

"You're going to get all of us killed! We never should have done this!" Sawako yelled, now clearly angry and not just annoyed, she turned her eyes away from the drummer.

Ritsu looked down at the steering wheel, looking defeated, but Yui was quick to snap her out of it. "Don't worry Ricchan, we're fine! Get us back on the road before we lose them!"

"Um, right!" Woken back up, Ritsu turned the car around and went slowly back for the road, fortunately enough, the car didn't seem to have suffered any damage.

As the DeLorean reversed, Yui could see another vehicle stopped at the side of the road, the owner was standing out in the rain, looking at them, seemingly struggling with something that Yui would make out to be a cell phone. The person waved at them as they made for the road but the amber-eyed driver did not seem to make anything of that, or at least didn't notice.

As she steered her vehicle back to the road, Ritsu was struck by an acute phobia of higher velocities. The car they were trailing had likely gained a significant distance on them, but she couldn't bring herself to go faster, she did indeed just almost get everyone killed and this fact made her immensely distressed as evidenced by her still present hyperventilation.

Luck finally smiled upon her though, the black station wagon appeared after following the road for some time, in front of them was a muddy road that seemed to head off into the forest to the right. The Toyota was already set on this road and disappeared moments later, if Ritsu had been going any slower, they would have missed it completely. The drummer however took the DeLorean forward and past the turn.

"Um… Ritsu… they went _that_ way." Sawako said while pointing at the mass of trees to the right.

"I know, but look at it. It's a forest, they must have something going in there, they'll probably be stopping." Ritsu tried to explain. "We'll follow them in a while."

As she said that, the drummer slowed the DeLorean and came to a halt at the side of the road.

"Give them a few minutes, then we'll get in there, make sure where they are, and call the police, I remember exactly the way we went from that town!" She said, having finally managed to relax again.

"So this must be what they were talking about when I heard the word forest…" Sawako mused.

Like she said she would, Ritsu waited a few minutes and then turned the car around, going back towards the muddy path and then onto it. As they were making the turn, Yui could see the vehicle from earlier pass them by, the one that had stopped when they had slid off the road.

The path itself was completely unpaved, only tyre marks were evidence that any vehicles ever passed through here. The DeLorean advanced slowly, making splashing noises as its wheels sunk into puddles in the path. The area was extremely dark, as any remaining sunlight was blotted out by the tree crowns above, the route was surrounded by woods on both sides. A strobe of light did appear at one point though, followed by a loud thunderclap, showing that the rainstorm was still going strong.

Eventually however, the woods opened into a clearing on the right, while left remained a thick forest. Not far ahead was a building that looked like a large garage. Two entrances were on the front of the building, one a small door to let people in, and the other a large garage door for vehicles.

"This is it…" Ritsu said.

"Back up before they see us!" Sawako quickly reminded her.

The drummer did, she shifted into reverse and the DeLorean quickly pulled back into the cover of the surrounding forest. Fortunately, the car's electrical engine made it quieter than a regular vehicle, and it slipped back unnoticed.

As she was backing up, Ritsu came to a clearing in the plant life to the right that she had noticed earlier. She steered it carefully into it, some screeching could be heard as branches from the surrounding trees made contact with the car, but it settled in without problem soon enough, almost impossible to notice from anywhere now.

"Alright Sawa-chan, do your thing!" Ritsu called.

"Right." The long haired brunette reached for her cell phone, typed a few numbers in it, and pressed it against her ear as Yui and Ritsu eagerly looked on.

What followed however, was only sad sounding beeps from the device. Sawako pulled it back and stared at it in disbelief.

"It says there's no signal…"

* * *

><p><em>Bottom<em>_ A/N_: With chapter six done, I'm hoping that seven won't take quite as long to write, but I can't say anything with certainty. I'm also hoping that you liked chapter six, if you didn't, please let me know why.


	7. It's About Time

_Top A/N_: Hello again dear readers, chapter seven is now complete, bringing you the climax of this arc. Hopefully it does not disappoint.

I have to extend my thanks to both Tastychainsaws and Genki Collective for beta-reading this chapter and providing valuable feedback. Both are exceptionally capable writers and their stories are worth a look.

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><p><strong>Chapter 7 – It's About Time<strong>

Darkness; that was all Akiyama Mio had seen in the past two hours. When she set out on a whim to try and find the stranger known as Ritsu again, she had never expected everything to turn out like this. Following her thoughts, she ended up kidnapped by a pair of criminals, stuffed into the trunk of their car. Mio was completely powerless to do anything about it, fright had paralyzed her completely. With only the sound of the vehicle's engine around her, she thought of Ritsu, how she would never know what the older girl's story really was. Mio simply sobbed quietly the whole time. Then suddenly the trunk opened, the sudden burst of light blinded the small girl, and she could feel rain as it hit her face. She was pulled out of the trunk.

* * *

><p>The dark gray overcast floated above the forest in the middle of nowhere, rendering the inside of it nearly dark as night. The darkness was momentarily dispelled by a flash of lightning, revealing a vehicle of metallic silver color surrounded by foliage on most sides, the scene was dripping wet as the rain was still going strong.<p>

"No signal?" Came the voice of Tainaka Ritsu from inside the vehicle.

"Look, I'm not sure how it is in the future, but these things don't work everywhere now, I should have thought of this…" Dejectedly returned Yamanaka Sawako, moments after attempting to call the law enforcement with her cell phone.

"Oh no… Ricchan, what are we going to do now?" Hirasawa Yui asked her drummer friend.

"Should we go back to that town? I was able to make the call from there." Sawako tried to suggest.

"We can't… if they leave this place while we're away, we'll never find them again." Ritsu quickly rejected it.

"You're right… what do we do then?"

Ritsu pressed a hand against her bangs covered forehead, her eyes were clenched shut and her mouth gave off a very audible sigh.

"We have to go get her… she won't be able to take this… we have to save her ourselves somehow." She said.

This statement earned the drummer a worried gaze from both of her companions, but Ritsu knew she was right. Mio had been extremely frightful for as long as Ritsu knew her, and this was no doubt like a worst nightmare for the now four-year old girl, the very thought of how Mio must be feeling right now made Ritsu ill.

Yui had similar feelings; she had known Mio long enough to know how this must be for the future bassist. But Yui did not know what she could do to help. Two of her best friends needed her, but she was not very strong or capable, she did not know what to do, and the thought eroded at her mind.

"Ricchan… I want to help you and Mio-chan, but I don't know what I can do…" The guitarist said, quietly.

"Yui, just be there with me, that's all I need from you." Ritsu could imagine how the other girl was feeling, so she just did her best to reassure her.

Sawako looked on at the two of them, she did not know what exactly they were thinking, but she knew one thing. She was scared. This was unlike any situation she had ever been in, and while she tried to figure out what could be done, nothing really safe came to mind. She did not want to go out there and try to face this, but there was an innocent child's life on the line, and the three of them were the only ones that could possibly do anything. These conflicting thoughts made Sawako unsure what she wanted to do.

"Ritsu… I don't know, what can we do here?"

"Sawa-chan, I don't know either." The drummer admitted. "But I can't leave Mio to this, we should get near that building and see if there's anything we can do to get her out without those two noticing us."

"Yeah, that's all we can do." Sawako affirmed. "I think we can move through the forest and approach the garage from the side."

"That's a good plan Sawa-chan."

"Ricchan, I promise I'll be there with you!" Yui announced. "No matter what happens!"

"Thanks Yui, but please be careful, I'll never forgive myself if something happens to you…"

"Don't worry Ricchan, this is for Mio-chan! I know we'll be okay!"

The drummer smiled, Yui's near unending optimism was really needed in this state of things.

The mechanical sound of the DeLorean's gullwing doors went off once again, and the three girls stepped into the dripping outside. With the rain still pouring, it wasn't long before all three of them were completely wet. They stayed away from the unpaved road leading to the garage, pushing through the shrubbery next to it instead. The touch of leaves as well as the wind from the storm made this an intensely cold experience, but it wasn't long before they could see the garage through the branches. The kidnappers' vehicle was still situated by it, apparently empty.

"Do you think they took Mio inside?" Ritsu mused as they stood at the edge of the forest.

"It's very possible they did, I don't know what they could be doing in there though." The future teacher told her.

"Sawa-chan, Ricchan, look. There are a lot of windows on the garage; maybe if we peek inside we can find where Mio-chan is." Yui said.

"That's not a bad idea Yui, but we have to be careful that they don't see us. If they do the whole thing is a bust." Sawako told the other brunette.

"I like the idea too." Ritsu said. "Let's just run over there quickly, stay low."

More adrenaline erupted in the three girls as they broke out of the bushes and ran for the building in front of them. Rain pelted the entirety of all three as they lost their leafy cover; they leaned gently against the structure as they reached it, looking towards the woods that they had come from. Yui stood shivering in her now completely drenched uniform between Ritsu on her right and Sawako on her left, neither of them looked any drier. Ritsu pushed her wet bangs away from her eyes as she looked to her side, the building extended much farther here than to the other side, which was being inspected by Sawako. The teacher's side had a single window, while Ritsu's had several before the corner of the building.

"Sawa-chan, let's check these windows." The drummer suggested. "You go for that one and I'll get started with these here." She pointed Sawako to the window closer to the teacher.

"Right, be careful, stay low and don't make noise. They're probably in there somewhere." The spectacled girl returned as she tried to get water off the lenses of her glasses.

"Yui, wait for us here." Ritsu told the brunette in between them.

"Okay Ricchan." Yui crouched against the building and pretty much curled up, embracing herself while still shaking from the cold.

Her two companions left her as they stepped towards their respective windows, and the biting feeling became more intense on Yui's consciousness. Mio was alone and in grave danger, and at this point, so were the three of them. Yui felt useless and inept, she did not know how to help any of her friends in this situation, but what scared her most was a possible confrontation with the two men that they were working against. Scenarios where the three of them failed to save Mio and even got badly injured or killed were going through the guitarist's head, and if she wasn't completely covered in rain already, one might have been able to notice a tear slide down Yui's cheek.

Meanwhile, mostly unaware of all that, Sawako approached the sole window that existed before the front edge of the building. Crouching below it, she slowly stood up to be able to look inside, but what she found was unremarkable. The room inside was a mess of wooden furniture that looked more than a decade old, with all sorts of junk spread over it. Some used paint and spray cans, a wrench or a hammer here and there, but otherwise this room was empty. Sawako gave a small sigh as she walked away from the window.

Ritsu ran to the other window in a much faster fashion than Sawako, standing right next to it now, she intended to lean and get a look inside, but to her surprise the window was slightly open, and a noise could be heard inside despite the rain, it was a radio. The drummer's heartbeat froze, she waved to her companions as she came to, gesturing for them to come over there. Sawako saw it, and shook Yui, who seemed a little out of it, awake as she passed her.

"What is it? Did you find something?" Sawako asked as they reached the drummer.

"Shh, listen." Ritsu said. "I think they're in there."

Sawako and Yui could both hear the radio too now; it seemed to be playing some song none of them had heard before.

"Are you sure? Did you look inside?"

"No… wait…" Ritsu proceeded to lean in like she had intended.

As soon as the drummer got a glance inside, she was met with the large man whom she and Sawako had trailed back at the gas station. Ritsu convulsed momentarily, but then realized, to her great relief, that the man had his back turned to her. He was sitting in a chair by a table, and across from him was his accomplice, who seemed to be much shorter, as the top of his head was barely visible over the tall man's shoulder. Ritsu could only make out the short man's hair, which was black and held up by some sort of hair gel. The radio that could be heard was situated on the table as well. That was all Ritsu could see, she feared leaning any further so she went back to her companions.

"They're in there, sitting at a table, I'm not sure what they're doing though." She stated.

"Is Mio-chan there too?" Yui spoke next.

"I don't know…" Ritsu said dejectedly. "I can't see very good in there… is it possible that she's still in the trunk of their car?"

"No, I really doubt that." Sawako said. "More than likely they took her somewhere inside."

"What do we do then Sawa-chan?" Yui asked. "If she's with them then there's nothing we can do… is there?"

"No, probably not…" The spectacled brunette admitted. "Look, since we don't really know, why don't we check all the other windows that we can? If both of them are in there busy with something, it should be safe." She advised.

"Good thinking Sawa-chan, let's go." Ritsu said.

The three of them ducked under the window next to them and passed it, set for the neighboring one.

* * *

><p>The four-year old Mio was lying on her side in an empty room; both her arms and legs were rendered immobile with rope. Mio was pressed against wall of the room, on the wall to her left was a door leading into the hallway that she was tossed into this room through, there was a light switch by the door but it was in the off state, and had there not been two windows on both of the remaining walls, the room would be completely dark. Mio was battered from being thrown around the Toyota's trunk by inertial forces as well as from not really being handled very well by her so called hosts. The small girl had more or less given up on crying by this time, the kidnappers didn't even bother gagging her, and she had seen her surroundings here, she knew nobody would hear her even if she screamed.<p>

Mio did not know what would happen to her, she only expected to be hurt again, and many frightening images went through her mind, few of which were coherent. Maybe she should have listened to her mother, she thought. With how things were now, she would probably never see her family again, and she would never know the meaning of what happened the other night. All that she had left was a glimmer of hope that maybe someone would rescue her.

But then something happened, the left window on the wall opposite the one Mio was against darkened, followed by a palm being press against it and wiping the outside moisture away. What the girl saw next managed to miraculously wash most of her negative thoughts away, it was the face of the girl known to her as Ritsu, the one that she set out for on the journey that got her kidnapped.

* * *

><p>Outside, Ritsu suddenly inhaled loudly as her face became shocked, to the surprise of both other girls. She then immediately clenched her fist and pulled it back, seemingly intent on trying to punch through the glass. That is until Sawako grabbed her and stopped it.<p>

"Hey what are you doing? Stop!" The teacher yelled.

"She's in there! I have to get her out!" Ritsu shouted back, sounding as if she were being stopped from achieving the one thing that she was going for her entire life.

"And how do you think this is going to help?" Sawako argued. "You're going to turn your hand into mincemeat and they'll hear! It's not going to accomplish anything!"

Yui was rendered agape by hearing what Ritsu said, but a moment later she heeded Sawako. "Ricchan, please listen to Sawa-chan! We'll get Mio-chan out somehow, but this is not a good way!" Yui said as she got in front of the drummer to stop her.

Ritsu's arm dropped after hearing the guitarist, but her fists were still gritted, as were her teeth and eyelids. "Damn it… you're right, thanks for stopping me." She said as she unclenched. "What can we do?"

"Look, there are three more windows on this room, let's go see if any of them can be opened from the outside somehow!" Sawako pretty much commanded, and she and Ritsu went for the next window.

Yui however stayed by the first, looking inside; she could see Mio as she lay tied up at the other end of the room. The small girl was looking towards Yui with wide eyes, which were still a little red from crying. Yui felt horrible seeing her will-be bassist friend like this. She tried to call to Mio, but the sound seemingly didn't carry through, and Yui feared raising her voice any further. Instead she simply tried to smile through the window, waving at Mio, mouthing the words 'We're going to save you!'

Mio faintly smiled back at Yui, awareness of their presence seemed to calm the small girl somewhat.

Yui was not at all as confident as she tried to appear to Mio, fear laded the guitarist immensely, even more so after seeing the state Mio was in.

Ritsu and Sawako came back to Yui at this point. "Nothing, they're all completely locked." The spectacled girl informed her in exasperation.

Yui looked at Ritsu; the drummer looked like she was trying to contain tremendous anger.

"Sawa-chan, can you think of anything else we can try?" The brunette asked the spectacled girl.

"I'm honestly at a loss now…" Sawako yielded. "Let's go back to the window there, see if they do anything."

They returned to the window where the radio could be heard, before they even looked inside the room, they could hear that the radio was still on, but it had a news report on now. Right as the three girls arrived, the reporter started talking about a kidnapping in a certain town, and a black Toyota that allegedly belonged to the perpetrators.

"Hei!" A deep sounding voice came from the inside as if calling to someone; the girls guessed it belonged to the larger man.

They could hear the door open, and right after, another voice. This one sounded higher pitched, almost comparable to the hissing of a snake.

A conversation followed, again in a language that none of the three girls could understand. As it ended, both men left the room, turning the radio off.

"Sawa-chan, did you understand any of that?" Ritsu asked.

"No, sorry, not really. I think they mentioned the car, but I didn't get anything other than that." Said the teacher.

"The car? You don't think they're-" The drummer's question was interrupted when they heard the sound of an engine starting; it could only have been the Toyota.

Fright struck all three girls, the first thought that came to them was that the kidnappers were once again leaving with Mio, they ran towards the front edge of the building, less worried about getting seen. Being the first to get there, Ritsu leaned out to look at the car. It did not leave; instead it went inside the garage.

She exhaled with great relief. "It's okay, they're not leaving."

"Then what do you think they're doing Ricchan?" Yui asked.

"I wasn't sure before, but I think I also heard the word for 'paint'." Sawako waded in. "It's possible that they intend to do something to their car to avoid being found, they just heard on the radio that the police are looking for it."

A thought struck Ritsu on that note. "So they'll probably be in there working on the car for a while then?"

"Yeah, probably." Sawako confirmed.

"Then let's get in there and get Mio out!" The drummer said adamantly.

"Huh? You mean just walk through the front door?" Sawako raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah! We'll just get over to that room really quickly, get Mio out with us and run back to the DeLorean; they won't even know what happened! When we're back in that town we can call the police and tell them to try and bust these guys!"

Sawako felt colder than ever upon hearing that. "I hate to admit it, but yeah, you're right, that's our best bet." She took her glasses off and tried to get the rain off them again, it wasn't working very well because her uniform was completely wet too. "Are you sure that the front entrance and the garage door don't both lead to the same room though?"

"I don't know…" Ritsu admitted. "We'll just have to be careful when getting in."

She leaned again, the car was gone and both entrances were now closed.

"It's safe." She called, and all three of them ran towards the smaller door.

The drummer reached for the handle, hoping that the door wasn't locked. She pressed it down slowly, and the door yielded. Ritsu opened it slowly, and to her relief, behind it was only a somewhat narrow hallway, with two doors immediately to the left and right. The left one probably led to the small storage room that Sawako had looked inside earlier, the right would likely lead to the garage where the two criminals were now. Ritsu stepped in carefully, signaling her two companions to follow.

Sawako went inside last; her breathing rate has increased significantly, along with her fear. Her drive to save Mio was not as strong as Yui and Ritsu's, and that was about the only thing that kept the other two girls going. Sawako tried to suppress the wish to just run away from this place, but she was very near her limit.

As they got near the right door, they could hear the sounds of tools inside, it was very apparent that their opposition was in there working. The hallway went further forward, with one more door on the left wall and one on the far end of the corridor.

"I think they're both in there." Ritsu said quietly, pointing at the right door, she then turned forward. "Look, that must be the room where they're keeping Mio, this will work, let's just go get her!"

They moved quietly to the said door, and Ritsu reached for and pushed down the handle again, but this time nothing happened. Ritsu's mouth dropped, she rattled the handle a few more times, but that of course didn't help.

"I-It's locked…" She muttered, sounding like she was about to break down in tears.

"Oh no…" Was all Yui could manage.

Sawako was visibly shaking now. "M-Maybe they left the keys in that other room." She cursed herself for even making this suggestion, but she wasn't ready to give up yet.

Ritsu said nothing, she went for the door they just passed, and immediately opened it. Thankfully, it really was empty. The drummer ran in, immediately starting to ransack the place.

"No no! Not so loud! T-They'll know someone was here if we leave this room a mess!" Sawako yelled as she too entered the room.

"What difference does it make? This is our only chance!" The drummer shot back.

Sawako went into complete hyperventilation and was sweating intensely as Ritsu more or less demolished the room in search of the keys, but she didn't find any. Yui stood at to the side, it was quite apparent now that she went into silent tears now, despite being wet.

Coughing in anger, Ritsu ran back out of the room and to the door behind which Mio was being held. The walls of the corridor were laden with wooden shelves where tools were stacked. Reason having mostly abandoned her by now, the drummer grabbed the first screwdriver she could find and pushed into the keyhole, trying to turn it in any direction she could. This did nothing to help.

Yui grabbed Ritsu as she and Sawako caught up.

"Ricchan, you have to stop! They're going to hear us!" She tried.

"Are they?" Came the voice behind them, it wasn't Sawako's, it was accented Japanese.

All three girls turned around slowly. The two kidnappers stood right in front of them.

Sawako couldn't breathe, nor make coherent thoughts, she was shaking extremely violently now. At the urge of her instinct, she ran to her left where there was a window leading outside, managing to open it, she pretty much jumped outside and ran off. Ritsu and Yui stared at the display, aghast.

"Well, that has got to be the bravest act I've seen in a while." The shorter kidnapper said, his name likely to be Hei, as he gave a slow, sardonic clap. "To be honest, I have no idea how you three got here, I'm amazed." He turned to his larger accomplice. "But we can't have you snooping around, can we Xing?"

"No Hei, not at all." The larger man said as he punched his own open palm.

Ritsu and Yui couldn't speak, they were looking at Hei, he was wearing very similar clothing to his partner, his forehead had a wide scar on it, as if someone had cut him with a knife across it. Both of them were smudged from whatever they were doing to their car.

Yui's tears now returned full force, this was almost exactly like one of the scenarios she was imagining earlier, she knew she can't do anything. Completely crushed, Yui found herself wishing that she would be woken up from this nightmare by Ui, that none of this was really happening and that she had only fallen asleep on her couch next to Ritsu.

Within the drummer, something else was happening. Fear and rage canceled each other out, and Ritsu amazingly found herself able to think perfectly straight again. She glanced at Yui, it was apparent and expected that the guitarist wouldn't be able to do much about their situation, Ritsu would have to act on her own, but she was not about to give up, she would have to try to come through, for both Yui and Mio.

* * *

><p>Sawako landed on her stomach into the wet grass. She clumsily picked herself up and thoughtlessly ran away from the building through the rain, along the path leading into the grove and towards the main road. She finally ran out of breath midway through it, and was forced to stop. As she stood there in the near darkness, panting and covered in mud, Sawako's rational mind started coming back to her. Looking to her right, she could see the outline of a silver colored vehicle, and her thoughts immediately drifted towards Yui and Ritsu.<p>

_I abandoned them…_

A flash of lightning illuminated Sawako as she stood.

* * *

><p>At the same time, back in the garage, the staring between two pairs went on for a few more seconds, but then the two criminals dashed forward. Hei went for Yui and Xing for Ritsu.<p>

Yui wasn't anywhere near a match for Hei, despite him not being very much taller than her. The guitarist could hardly move and the man instantly overpowered her and brought her down on her stomach. Yui stopped offering any resistance when this happened.

"Well this is really pathetic." He spat. "Maybe we can make some money off of you two as well!" He added as he reached for a piece of rope to bind Yui's limbs.

Sobs were all that came from Yui.

"Oh don't worry, we'll treat you well… somewhat." Hei went on. "I can't say anything for the guys we sell you off too though!"

Being busy taunting after an easily won fight, Hei did not notice at all that Xing was having trouble with Ritsu. The brute relied on his size and strength in battle, and so Ritsu took up a defensive strategy, relying on her agility and small figure.

Whenever he tried to approach her, Ritsu moved away, but there was no way she could defeat him like this, and she wouldn't be able to keep it up forever either, she was being pushed towards a dead end.

"Shit, stop moving!" The large man yelled as he slowly approached her, Ritsu did not respond to him, but it was becoming evident that Xing wasn't a very clever man.

Thinking about what she could do, Ritsu noticed that she was now pressing against the window that Sawako had jumped out of. It was too late to try to do the same, she would be grabbed before she could, and if that happened, it would be over, the man was nearly two times the drummer's size.

Xing didn't want to waste any more time, he went to grab her, but she managed to dodge him and move to the right, the man reacted fast though, he pushed her at the wall, then grabbed her by the wrists before she could move away as she hit it. The drummer's heart began to race as the man stared her down, but then something happened, a blunt impact came and Xing's grip on Ritsu weakened to the point where she was able to slip out of it.

Trying to make out what happened, Ritsu saw a large wrench on the floor next to Xing, it had slid off the shelf above when she impacted the wall, hitting him on the head. The man was still dazed, and Ritsu pulled herself together, she kicked him in the back of his head as he was on his knees, sending him at the wall where his head banged into it. Falling down, he did not get back up.

Ritsu chuckled in disbelief, and then turned to Hei, who was still hovering over Yui, having just finished tying her up. The smaller man looked back at her; his face was now that of genuine shock, as was Yui's.

"God damn it Xing, you dumb idiot..." Hei uttered violently. "Well, I guess I'll have to do everything myself like usual." He stepped away from Yui and towards the drummer.

Ritsu did not know what to expect this time. She took a stance as Hei approached her, then a punch came as she had expected, which she moved out of the way of, but before she could react a kick came from the side, Ritsu tried to dodge again but couldn't quite make it. She got grazed, which made her convulse as she clenched her side in pain.

Hei did not immediately resume his assault. "I hope you didn't think I was as incompetent as that moron there." He said instead while pointing at his unconscious accomplice.

The drummer managed to straighten up. "Well I guess we can't have everything be as dull and easy as that!" She yelled back, trying to sound confident, it was all fake though, probably apparently.

This battle could not be won through wit, Ritsu knew that. She would have to try to bring Hei down physically, but it would not be easy, it was evident that the man was both fit and experienced, much more so than her.

She went for him this time, trying to get a hit on his face. Hei wouldn't have any of that though, he didn't even bother dodging, he simply blocked it and shrugged it off instead, even managing to find time to counter as Ritsu made herself open. His fist went for her head, and she did not manage to dodge this time, the blow scraped her around the mouth sending her stumbling back. The drummer could taste blood as she came to, her lip was torn.

"Just surrender you stupid bimbo, you're way out of your league here, can't you see that?" Hei yelled.

"If you just let me tie you up it will hurt a lot less, for now, your friend there made a smart decision!" He pointed behind himself at Yui.

"No…" Ritsu said quietly.

She was growing desperate, knowing what would happen to all three of them if Hei wins this battle. She ran for him again, but Hei decided he had had enough, he had not been seeing this as more than a game from the start. As she came close to him he kicked her from the side again, this time it wholly connected. Pain erupted through Ritsu's entire being as she was sent towards the wall, hitting it and bouncing off, she dropped down.

The drummer curled up on the ground, the pain around her chest was unbearable, whether or not ribs were broken, she couldn't tell. Hei approached her slowly.

"There, see, this was uncalled for, we could have completely skipped this part if you had just been a good girl!" He proclaimed, crossing his hands.

He stopped in front of her, looking down. "Damn, you're miserable. What did you even come here for? Do you know that brat we took? That's what you came to do, isn't it? Save her! Well that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard all week!"

As he finished, Hei erupted into vile laughter that made him close his eyes. Ritsu looked up at him, clenching her teeth.

_No… I won't let you do this! Not to me, not to Yui, and ESPECIALLY not to Mio!_

Ritsu gathered all the strength she had left, she unclenched and stood up, now on near face-to-face level with Hei. His eyes opened to Ritsu's angry grimace.

"Say that again you bastard!"

Shocked, Hei didn't manage to react. The drummer grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pulled him towards her and headbutted him with her forehead. A crunch could be heard as Hei was sent backwards, Ritsu did not let go of his shirt however, she pulled her other hand back as far as she could, then pulled him back towards herself once more. Fear spread through Hei as the drummer's clenched fist flew towards him with a swoosh, delivering another impact to his already broken nose. Blood splattered over Ritsu's fist as Hei went flying down.

On that note, Ritsu collapsed again, it was the last of her. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near enough to incapacitate Hei. The man quickly got up, his hand pressed against his face, dripping with blood. He stared aghast at his crimson palm as he removed it.

Rage was all Hei could feel right now. "You- you know what, I think we'll make more than enough money off those two! I could just turn you into a bloody pulp!"

Yui watched helplessly as Hei picked up the wrench that had knocked out his partner earlier and slowly approached Ritsu's prone form. As he was standing over her, he started laughing again, and Yui clenched her eyes shut, only tears escaping from them.

The laughter stopped, and then the sound of a dull impact against flesh came.

Ritsu was certain that this was her getting hit, that she just couldn't feel additional pain anymore. But then something fell down next to her, opening her eyes, she could see that it was Hei. Above him stood Yamanaka Sawako, holding a lead pipe and staring expressionlessly at the drummer.

Ritsu stared back, seconds later both of their expressions twisted into smiles, laughter erupting from the prone girl.

Yui's eyes also reopened as she heard it. "Sawa-chan!" She exclaimed with glee.

"Come on, don't wuss out on me now." The spectacled girl said, somewhat ironically, as she offered her hand to Ritsu.

The drummer took it, and was pulled back to her feet. "Hahaha, oh Sawa-chan, I never thought I'd be this happy to see you! Ow!" She agitated again as the pain in her chest came back.

"There's a key ring on this guy." Sawako squatted next to Hei and pulled it off. "They'll probably wake up at some point, let's finish up here!" She said, eager.

The two of them went over to Yui next, quickly untying her. As soon as she was free, Yui hugged her returning companion with all her might.

"Sawa-chan, you're the best! Thank you so much!"

"Hey… I took the other guy out and got started on this one, don't I deserve some credit…" Ritsu added rhetorically from the side.

"Alright Yui, you're welcome, now let me go."

Sawako took the key ring to the door as the guitarist released her, it didn't take her long to unlock it. She then gestured for Ritsu to go inside.

The drummer did not hesitate; she stepped in, finding her future best friend.

"Mio…" Happiness was apparent in the drummer's voice as she stood still momentarily.

"Ritsu-nee-chan?" The small girl shot back.

Ritsu ran over to Mio and picked her up into a hug before the latter could say anything else.

"Aaah, nee-chan, you're wet!" Little Mio protested.

"Oh! Right, sorry!" Ritsu put Mio back on her feet. "Let me just get these ropes off you!"

"Nee-chan, why are you here?" The girl asked as she was being untied.

"Why… I came to save you!" Ritsu said, squatting next to Mio.

"All by yourself?"

"Well, yeah." The drummer had gotten both knots off Mio now.

"Idiot…"

Ritsu became agape at that, but before she could say anything Mio ran at her and hugged her.

"Thank you…" The future bassist said.

The drummer of course hugged back, snickering, all in spite of all the pain she could still feel. A few more tears escaped her clenched eyes.

A part of Mio wanted to ask Ritsu the questions she had now, but she could see that the other girl was in no state for that, she was covered nearly head to toe in filth, her uniform was torn in several places and she had multiple bruises on her face, which was also covered in blood from her lip, something that Mio cringed at upon seeing it. The drummer's legs also seemed to be shaking as she struggled to remain standing.

"Come on, let's take you home."

Ritsu stepped out of the room, holding Mio by the hand, Yui and Sawako were waiting for them there.

"Mio-chan!" Yui immediately went to the small girl, petting her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, Yui-nee-chan." She responded, before turning curiously to Sawako.

"Oh, this is Yamanaka Sawako-chan, we wouldn't have been able to save you without her!" Yui said.

"Yes, it was a pleasure." Sawako interrupted. "Now can we please go? I'm pretty sure those two will be waking up soon." She indicated the two unconscious men.

Everyone agreed that this was a good idea; they ran for the exit and outside, the rain had mostly stopped, leaving a muddy mess in front of the garage in its wake, but more interesting were several new vehicles parked there, all of them sporting emergency lights. It was the police. The four girls stared at the scene in confusion.

"Did you call them Sawa-chan?" Yui asked.

"No…"

Doors opened on the police cars, and out stepped, among others, a policewoman that the three older girls recognized from before by her ponytail. She was the first one to approach the girls, having also recognized them.

"You three? I know you! How did you get here?" She asked, very much surprised.

"We could ask you the same thing!" Ritsu returned.

"We got a call about a suspicious vehicle having slid off the road near here, and right before that we got another one about the kidnappers being seen in the town just before, I thought this was our best lead! But seriously, why are you three here?" She blinked then, noticing Mio. "Wait, you have Akiyama-san with you? What happened? Where are the kidnappers?"

"Inside." Sawako pointed behind her. "Feel free to just drag them off."

Several officers ran into the garage upon hearing that.

"You dealt with them… by yourself?" The ponytailed woman asked, still shocked. "Should I even ask?"

"Probably not." Sawako said, putting on a sly smile.

"Well then, can I at least have your names? You three are heroes! I need-"

Before the officer could finish her sentence, Ritsu's legs gave out; she was only prevented from falling into the mud by Sawako and Yui catching her. It seemed that the pain and fatigue had finally gotten to her completely, she slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p><em>Bottom AN_: And that would be that, the next chapter will bring closure to the arc, tying up some lose ends, but not all, leaving some for the next arc to take over. Until then, I would appreciate any feedback from the reader.


	8. This Time for the Better

_A/N_: I've naught much to say about this chapter, except give thanks to Genki Collective who gave tremendous amounts of helpful feedback which probably made the whole thing read a lot better.

Chapters eight and nine were originally a single chapter, but I split it into two when it became clear that it was going to be twice as long as the average chapter. That being so, there will be no more notes until the end of chapter nine.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8 – This Time for the Better<strong>

Tainaka Ritsu woke up to rays of sunlight on the morning of Sunday, May 5, 1996. Her vision took a moment to adjust, and when it did, the drummer could see that she was lying in a bed, covered by white sheets. Inspecting her surroundings, she noticed that her uniform had been removed, replaced by a thin, pale-green shirt. The walls of the room she was in were painted light blue, with matching curtains on the windows that were on the right wall, a couple of simple, framed pictures also decorated the walls. To the left of the bed she was in was a couple of chairs and beyond them a door leading to whatever outside. To the right, next to the wall with windows on it, was a small wooden cabinet, and adjacent to it was an IV stand, the needle of which penetrated the girl's right forearm. There was no doubt − this was a hospital room.

Ritsu looked for any means to call someone, but she was stopped by the sound of the door to her room opening. In came a person who looked to be an elderly physician. His head was mostly bald, and what hair remained apparently turned gray long ago. A white lab coat covered most of his figure. He bore a faint smile as he approached the drummer's bed and sat in one of the chairs.

"Hello Ojousan," he greeted her in an upbeat tone. "I see you have finally woken up. I am Dr. Miyamoto."

"Where am I?" the girl asked, her thoughts still a mess.

"Well, this is a hospital if I remember correctly, and I probably should, since I've been working here for over thirty years now. Would you mind if I called you by your name? I'll explain later why."

"Um… I guess not. But tell me, where is this hosp- Ow!"

Ritsu tried to prop herself up, but was quickly stopped by the ache in the side of her chest.

"Now, now, relax, Ritsu-san," the doctor ordered, gesturing for the bed-bound girl to lie back down. "You're back in the hometown of the girl you rescued. You've been brought to me by the police; they explained everything they could."

Ritsu did lie back down, and let out a sigh of relief as she learned that she was back in the certain town.

"So everyone is safe then?"

"Yes, Ritsu-san, quite safe," the doctor informed her. "I examined everyone when you were brought in, and I let the others go on the same day. You're the only one who had anything more than a laceration."

The elderly man pointed at a spot above his mouth.

"Your upper lip had a substantial tear on it, but we have stitched that together and it should heal with no scarring provided that the stitches do not get damaged."

Ritsu's lips did feel funny. She reached for her mouth with her left hand, pulling it back as a stinging sensation hit her. There were definitely stitches there.

"You also received a hard blow to the side of your chest, but you appear to have been lucky, as no ribs were broken," the doctor continued. "It will probably ache for a while still, but after that you'll be able to forget it ever happened."

"How long have I been out? What time is it?" The drummer asked.

"The police told me you passed out at the scene, which was at about 14:00 yesterday. It is just past 08:00 now, so you have been sleeping for about eighteen hours."

The doctor leaned towards Ritsu in his chair.

"Ritsu-san, may I ask you some things now?"

"Um… yeah, sure." Ritsu turned towards him.

"I, or anyone, can't seem to discern who you are. You had no documents on you, the police were unable to find any information relating to you, or find your parents, and nobody even seems to know your family name, this is why I asked if I could call you by your name. It seems to be the same with the girl that was brought in with you… Yui-san, was it? Both of you also had some abrasions and bruises that I believe you received on a separate occasion from yesterday."

The doctor paused and took a deep breath.

"The two of you are complete enigmas, yet you and your friend, immediately upon finding out little Akiyama-san had been kidnapped, risked your lives to rescue her. The girl's parents claim that there was no way you could have known her for more than two days. So, Ritsu-san, if I may ask, just what is the story behind all this?"

Ritsu looked down as her lips curved into a smile, to the degree the stitches permitted.

"Sensei, I'm sorry," she replied. "I don't think there's any way I can explain this to you."

The doctor chuckled.

"I honestly expected as much, but it was worth asking the question. I will respect your privacy, Ritsu-san. I do believe we all owe you that much after what you have done."

He got out of his chair and stepped towards the door.

"Now, I think there is someone here to see you."

As the elderly man walked out, he left the door open and gestured for someone else to walk inside. Ritsu looked toward the entrance, and soon the faces of two brown-haired girls appeared. It was Yui and Sawako, both of whom were in much better condition than they were when she last saw them. The former was apparently wearing a set of the latter's clothes, and both of them were heavily bandaged.

Yui wasted no time. She dashed over to her bed-bound friend.

"Captain! How are you feeling?" she asked as she gave the drummer a salute.

"Spectacular," Ritsu returned with a smirk.

"I was really worried ever since you collapsed!" Yui went on, taking Ritsu's left hand in both of hers. "Miyamoto-sensei told us you'd be okay, but he wouldn't let us see you. He said you needed to rest."

"Ow, Yui, take it easy!" Ritsu yelped as Yui yanked on her arm. "I'm okay. Well, not really, but I'll be okay."

"Ah, sorry Ricchan…" Yui let go of the drummer and retreated nervously to one of the chairs.

The guitarist moving revealing a shaky Sawako behind her.

"Ritsu… I already talked to Yui about this, but I wanted to tell you too that I'm sorry. I had a moment of weakness back there, and I guess I abandoned you." She seemed to have trouble keeping her eyes on the drummer.

Ritsu, however, flashed her a dismissive grin.

"Oh, don't worry about that, Sawa-chan. Most people probably wouldn't even have come with us in the first place. And besides, you came back just in time! What you did there was amazing, like something out of a movie!"

Sawako exhaled loudly, as if she had just been relieved of some great, unseen weight.

"Ricchan, I'm sorry too… I was no help at all, was I?"

"Yui, really, you've done nothing wrong. In fact, I was probably wrong to make you come with me to that garage. If Sawa-chan hadn't come back, I would have gotten you captured for nothing."

Ritsu tried to comfort the guitarist, but it didn't seem to have much effect, as Yui's eyes remained down. A few silent moments passed before Sawako spoke again.

"Anyway, I also wanted to tell you what happened after you passed out," she began, taking care that no one outside could hear them. "As far as I know, nobody found your time machine. When you fell, Yui and I grabbed you, and that police officer girl offered to immediately take all four of us back here, including Mio. She dropped us off at this hospital and then went to get Mio's parents. When she came back with them, they were in utter disbelief. They asked both Yui and I how we managed this, and why we would even attempt it, but I told them it would be best if they talked to you when you wake up. Oh yeah, and when the police asked for our names, I only gave them your first names, so there should be no panic about you being seventeen when you should be… how old? Three? Four?"

"Yeah, so I've heard." Ritsu said. "Good thinking, Sawa-chan. So Mio's parents will be coming to see me? When?"

"I'm pretty sure Miyamoto-sensei went to call them just now."

"Huh?" Ritsu gasped, her eyes wide. "Oh, no! I look awful!"

"Ritsu really, you look like you do because you risked your life to save their daughter," Sawako insisted. "I don't think they could possibly think badly of you anymore."

"Yeah, Ricchan," Yui also assured her, still sounding a little gloomy. "Both of them were really grateful to us yesterday, so everything will be okay."

Their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Er… Come in!" Ritsu called.

All three girls instantly focused on the person in the doorway, thinking it might be Mio's parents. It was only the ponytailed police officer, however.

"Ritsu-san, good morning!" she greeted. "Sorry about the informality. I'm sure Miyamoto-sensei already explained everything to you. Oh, all three of you are here. That's perfect!"

For some reason, Yui seemed to cheer up at the sight of the woman. What the guitarist said next came as a shock to Ritsu.

"Morning, Nakano-san!"

"Na… kano… san?" Ritsu repeated, mouth agape.

Officer Nakano looked at Ritsu.

"Huh? That's my name," she confirmed, confused by Ritsu's reaction. "Nakano Mayuri. Is something wrong?"

"N-No, nothing at all," the drummer stuttered.

"It's funny, Yui-san seemed a bit surprised at my name too… but anyway, I wanted to give the three of you a little update," she said as she took a seat in one of the chairs. Yui and Sawako sat next to her.

"Ritsu-san, I'm sure Miyamoto-sensei already told you that we were unable to find any information about you or Yui," the officer began. "Neither of you seem to have any identification, but since the law doesn't require you to carry any as citizens of Japan, you're not under any sort of liability there. But what I'm not sure about is how you managed to trail the kidnappers without a car, even ignoring the fact that none of you have a driver's license. Sawako-san told me you that you hailed a taxi that just happened to be passing by and had it follow them all the way."

Sawako's lips twisted uncomfortably at that. After a brief pause, Mayuri continued.

"I'm not really okay with avoiding responsibility, and I know that that's a lie."

She hesitated again, thinking.

"But when I consider it all, I really can't find any reason to charge any you for anything. Your actions were completely selfless and nothing short of heroic. My superiors are not as interested in this case as they should be. That's actually a good thing for a change, because they quickly accepted Sawako-san's explanation just to put this case in the drawer as soon as possible. The three of you are completely in the clear."

"Heh… thank you Nakano-san," Sawako said, exhaling in relief once more.

"Now, about those who are not in the clear," Mayuri continued. "The two kidnappers you somehow incapacitated, Yǐn Hei and Máo Xing. We've been after these guys for a long time, it's pretty certain that they've been responsible for five or six recent kidnappings in this area. We really should have had them sooner, but the department was not doing everything it could have, and that's almost as shameful as the kidnappings themselves."

She sighed.

"They're being kept in the prison hospital right now. Both of them were injured even worse than you, Ritsu-san. We've been trying to get them to divulge any information about their other victims. We've gotten nothing out of them so far, but at least we have them in custody. They're both probably looking at long sentences because of being foreign. We're not even sure if they have proper immigration papers yet. And I have to thank you three for this: I don't know how long they would have stayed at large if not for your actions. I just hope we can do something for the rest of their victims…"

Mayuri sounded somewhat melancholic, as if she didn't really believe it.

"I hope so too," Ritsu replied. "What about Mio, though? Is she okay?"

"Miyamoto-sensei said she would be fine physically. She was still quite shaken during the ride back. When you fainted, she started crying, but Yui-san talked to her the whole trip and got her to calm down."

Mayuri patted the guitarist on the shoulder as she finished her sentence, and Yui smiled softly. With that, officer Mayuri stood.

"Well, that's all I have to say to you guys. I'll leave you to rest now, Ritsu-san. Miyamoto-sensei said that he'd like you to stay here another day before he lets you go."

She went for the door, stopping before she went through it.

"You guys stay out of trouble, now. If we bump into each other again in the future, it had better be on good terms. Goodbye!"

And so she left, seen off by a wave from Yui. Ritsu immediately turned to the guitarist.

"Yui, you don't think that's really Azusa's…"

"It must be, Ricchan!" Yui responded enthusiastically. "I asked her if she had a daughter, and she said yes! They're really alike too, I never noticed until yesterday!"

"Wow…" the drummer said, still shocked. "How about that? Azusa never told us her mom was with the police, did she? I mean she said her parents were in a jazz band… I guess that's only a recreational thing."

"Yeah, Ricchan, must be." Yui agreed.

"Someone you know?" Sawako asked, curious.

"Yeah, she's another bandmate of ours, the second guitarist. You'll get to meet her one day, Sawa-chan!" Ritsu clarified.

"Can't wait," the teacher chuckled, opting to change the subject. "About your car, though. I think that can wait until you're out of here. It should still be in those woods where we left it. It's unlikely anyone will find it. I mean, that's why those two were hiding out in that garage, because nobody else would ever go there. When they release you, we just need to go back there and get it ba-"

Sawako was interrupted by another knock.

Eyes were on the door, and Ritsu anxiously called for the guests to come in.

The door opened, revealing a woman with long, raven hair, holding what looked like a smaller version of herself by the hand. It was Mio and her mother.

The atmosphere in the room grew tense as Mio's mother silently walked over to Ritsu's bed with her daughter. She seemed embarrassed, and it reminded Ritsu of the older Mio walking on stage before one of their performances.

"H-Hello Ritsu-san," she said, finally breaking the silence. "I'm sorry I have to address you so informally, but I don't know your family name."

"It's okay Akiyama-san, don't worry about it," Ritsu told her, trying to sound calm.

"H-How are your injuries?"

"Doc says I'll be back up in no time," the drummer said, moving her arms around to try to emphasize that she wasn't that badly injured, though it didn't seem to convince anyone.

"Ritsu-san… I don't know how to thank you," Mrs. Akiyama said, then turned to Ritsu's companions. "And you two as well. I completely misjudged you when we first met, and I'm sorry."

"It's all okay Akiyama-san. And you don't have to thank me. I did what I had to."

"I still don't understand it. You act like you've known my daughter for years, and she seems to have grown attached to you, too, even before what happened, and she refuses to tell me why…"

Ritsu sighed, and then smiled.

"Akiyama-san, I'm really sorry, but I can't explain this to you now. How and why I know Mio aside, please understand that I could never hurt her or want anything bad to happen to her. I will explain this someday, though − that's a promise!"

To the drummer's relief, Mio's mother smiled back at her for the first time since they met at the kindergarten.

"All right, I won't press you for an explanation. I'm very protective of Mio, but I can't imagine that you would want to harm her in any way anymore. You seem more like a guardian angel than anything now... I will hold you to that promise, though."

Mio, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly made her presence known when she approached Ritsu's bed and reached over the edge of it, trying to pull herself up.

Seeing this, Sawako got out of her seat and picked Mio up and placed her on the bed next to Ritsu, which drew a yelp of surprise from the little girl.

"Hi, Mio," Ritsu said, smiling affectionately at her future best friend.

"Ritsu-neechan, Mama said I could go to the kindergarten."

The small girl was looking Ritsu deeply into her eyes, and the drummer couldn't help but chuckle from the joy she felt. At that moment, she knew everything would be all right.

"Really? That's great."

"She seemed to really want it, and since the only reason not to was because I misjudged you, I don't see why not," Mio's mother added. "I'm going to take her back tomorrow."

Then suddenly the whole room was startled by a pained yelp from Yui. The guitarist's teeth were clenched and she was pressing a hand against her forehead. It looked as if only her chair was stopping her from falling down. Ritsu was about to call for a doctor when Yui just as suddenly relaxed and a smile appeared on her face. Everyone eyed the guitarist worriedly.

"Oi, Yui, are you okay?" Sawako asked her.

"I'm okay Sawa-chan… everything is fine," Yui said as she stood up and moved to join little Mio and Ritsu on the bed.

The two of them played with Mio, and the normally anxious girl appeared completely relaxed. As they did, Ritsu looked to the side at the girl's mother. The older woman still looked slightly confused, but like her daughter, she wasn't anxious. She looked more like she was witnessing something incredible happen.

Ten minutes passed, and the mother-daughter duo was getting ready to leave. On their way out, they stopped at the door.

"Ritsu-san, when might we see you again?" Mrs. Akiyama asked.

"It could be as soon as tomorrow," Ritsu answered with a grin.

They left, leaving the trio alone again.

"Mission complete, huh?" Sawako smirked at Ritsu.

"Not exactly what I had in mind," the drummer chuckled.

"Well, I think I should go too," Sawako said. "I still have to sort things out with my parents now since they left us alone yesterday after we came back."

"I want to stay with Ricchan, Sawa-chan. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm sure my parents will let you stay another night, Yui. I'll come back for you later, okay?"

"Alright, Sawa-chan, thanks!"

"Ritsu, Miyamoto-sensei said he'd release you early tomorrow," Sawako informed the drummer as she stood to go. "I told him someone would be here to get you. Yui said she'd come with me to school. Both your uniforms were ruined, so we'll get you some new ones. When I'm done with school, we'll meet up and see how we can get back to the time machine. I'll see both of you later."

"Bye, Sawa-chan!" Yui said as the door closed behind the teacher. She stood and turned back toward Ritsu.

In the moment of silence that followed, Ritsu realized something. The drummer let out a heavy breath, and suddenly intense relief filled her. The memories of the defective future no longer felt true. They had turned into a residue, as if left by some horrible dream. Her old memories were now the true ones again.

"Yui… everything really is fine, isn't it?"

"Yeah, Ricchan, it is."

* * *

><p>On Monday, May 6, 1996, Yui went with Sawako to their high school, having spent the night before at her future teacher's house. They were both given spare uniforms when they explained what happened, and also got one for Ritsu. Since she had no class to go to, Yui left for the hospital, where Ritsu was still recovering.<p>

When she arrived, the guitarist scrambled for Ritsu's room, spare uniform in tow. Forgetting to knock, she barged right in, and found Ritsu sitting on her bed, talking to Dr. Miyamoto. She was still in her hospital robes.

"Oh, Yui-san, good morning," the doctor greeted her first.

"Hey, Yui! Doc was just about to release me, but we realized I had no clothes to wear…"

The drummer then noticed what Yui was carrying.

"Oh you brought me some! That's great, thanks!"

"Well, that takes care of that issue then," Miyamoto noted. "Now, Ritsu-san, you should be fine to go about your routine as normal, but you will need to come back to me or someone else to have those stitches looked at and eventually removed. You should come for a checkup in about two or three days, or if it starts hurting more at any time."

"I'll do that sensei, thanks."

"Well then, I will let you change, and then you are free to go whenever you want," the elderly man said as he headed for the door. "I will handle all the paperwork for you. Just check out at the reception when you leave."

"Here you go, Ricchan," Yui said as she handed Ritsu the spare uniform.

The drummer quickly got out of the robe and into her new uniform, which looked little different from the old one. Chances were nobody would even notice it was different when they get back to their own time.

"I guess all that's left to do is to wait for Sawa-chan, and then get the DeLorean and take ourselves back… I hope it still works," Ritsu said.

"I hope so too, Ricchan. What do we do now?"

"Nothing, really. We left all our things in that car."

The drummer sat in one of the chairs next to her former bed. Yui got into the one next to Ritsu.

"So we'll just wait for Sawa-chan then? She said her classes ended earlier today, at 13:00."

"Yeah, I guess."

"Can you drive it again? Are you feeling better?"

"Sure. My chest still hurts, but it's not too bad."

With time to spare, the two friends remained in their seats. The sun was shining brightly outside again that day, and the rays entering through the open windows managed to make even the hospital room seem pleasant. The two of them stayed there for a while, just talking about their times together.

"We'll be college students soon, won't we Ricchan?"

"Yep, we most certainly will."

"I really can't wait to see everyone again."

* * *

><p>When the time finally came, they left the hospital and went back to the school together. As Sawako's classes ended, they met her in front of her classroom, and agreed to go back to her house one last time for lunch, since Yui and Ritsu couldn't eat anywhere else.<p>

Sawako's parents were happy to have the two again, and the topic at the dinner table inevitably turned to the trio's exploit. It seemed Sawako only managed to avoid a life sentence to her room because her parents considered her and her friends heroes. Yui and Ritsu were modest about it, though. It was something they would have done for any of their friends at any point in time.

After eating, Sawako said that she'd walk the two of them home, which really wasn't that much of a lie. Her parents agreed, after being assured that they would not be mounting any more rescues that month.

The three girls stood once again on the pavement in front of Sawako's house. With the sun still riding high and a light breeze brushing against their faces, they were reminded of the day they'd met.

"Ritsu, do you remember which way we went? Could you take us back there?"

"I think so, Sawa-chan… wait, you're not suggesting we take your parents' car, are you?"

The drummer's eyes narrowed, and the bespectacled girl raised her arms defensively.

"What? No! I barely got out of punishment for what we did last time! And that's with them thinking that you have a license! No, I was thinking something different. Remember what I told the police? That we followed them in a taxi? I thought maybe we should actually do that now. You could tell the driver where to go."

"That's a good idea, Sawa-chan!" Yui said. "But won't that be expensive?"

"Relax, I'll pay for it," Sawako replied dismissively. "I have more allowance than I know what to do with, even after buying a decent guitar. I can have the driver take me back, too. I don't think you two will waste any time going back."

"No, Sawa-chan, it's okay," Ritsu offered. "I can drive you home."

"Thanks, I'll pass. I don't want to be with you when you get arrested for driving over the limit without a license. Now come on, let's go find a taxi stand."

The three of them headed for the town center, and from there it didn't take them long to find a stand. Several vehicles were parked there, and the drivers were standing on the walkway alongside it, talking amongst each other as they waited for passengers. Leading the way, Sawako approached a white four-seater before waving at the group of drivers.

Separating from his colleagues, one of them hurried over to the girls.

"Hello, there! Do you girls need a ride?"

"Yeah, just go where she tells you," Sawako said, pointing at the drummer. "I'll be paying. Ritsu, get in."

She indicated the passenger seat before getting in through one of the back doors and gesturing for Yui to follow her.

As soon as all three of them were seated, the driver started the car, and Ritsu told him to take them to the intercity. With no rain and little traffic, the ride went smoothly, and soon they had gone through the neighboring town and passed the gas station.

"This is a pretty long trip," the driver observed, trying to make conversation. "May I ask where you three are going?"

"The two of them are going to meet someone to take them further," Sawako quickly responded. "I'm just accompanying them, and you'll be taking me back when we drop them off."

"Right here," Ritsu said, pointing at a turn.

"Alrighty then," the driver replied as he slowed down, preparing to make the turn.

They exited the town, and soon passed the curve where Ritsu had slid off the road in the DeLorean. She grimaced at the sight; the tyre marks in the grass were still visible. Not long afterward, they reached the dirt path that led to the kidnappers' hideout.

"Stop here," Ritsu ordered, indicating the point on the roadside where she had stopped the time vehicle two days earlier.

"Here?" the driver asked, slightly confounded.

"Yeah, my um… uncle's coming to pick us up here," the drummer lied. "He just hasn't made it yet. I'm sure he'll be here soon."

The vehicle came to a halt, and the three girls exited it.

"I'll just be a minute," Sawako told the driver, then turned to her two companions.

"So how far are you two going?"

"Back to where we were, I guess," Ritsu told her. "January 15, 2010."

"Okay, you said that the car speeds up uncontrollably when it happens, so be absolutely sure that you have enough road in front of you," Sawako advised. "And be careful."

"I will, Sawa-chan."

"Oh, and I think you'll need this. I took it out of your old uniform when you passed out."

The spectacled-girl reached into the pocket of her jacket and took out a key. It was the key to the DeLorean. She handed it to Ritsu.

"Oh, god, I didn't think about that at all…"

The drummer stared at the key, confused, before finally taking it.

"You really are hopeless," Sawako said, one side of her mouth curving up. "Well then, see you in about fourteen years."

Her smirk turned into a melancholic smile. Yui couldn't restrain herself. She pounced on her future teacher and hugged her.

"Bye, Sawa-chan. Thanks for everything!"

Sawako no longer felt any reserve; she returned the hug before saying her final goodbye. She then got back into the taxi, which immediately turned around and drove off.

The two girls lost in time looked on at the vehicle until vanished out of sight, then turned to each other.

"Well, Yui, this is it. Let's go!"

"Right behind you, Captain!"

They entered the forest path, trying to avoid stepping into any remaining mud from the storm. Ritsu couldn't remember exactly where she had left the DeLorean. They wandered about the path for a time, surrounded by the voices of birds and the dim sunlight that managed to penetrate the tree crowns. Soon, they found the vehicle just as they had left it, facing outwards. It was covered in debris from the trees that surrounded it on most sides, but was otherwise untouched.

Ritsu inserted the key and unlocked the car with a click. Yui and she immediately opened their doors. Inside were a pair of winter coats and scarfs, as well as their wallets and three cell phones. Suddenly, Ritsu remembered one of them belonged to Sawako. She'd dropped it right before they left for the garage that day. Yui picked it up and stared at it sheepishly.

"Ricchan… we forgot to give this back to Sawa-chan."

She presented it to her friend, who was already trying to get comfortable in the driver seat.

"Oh… well, we can give it to her when we get back, right?" Ritsu tried to rationalize. "It will only take us a moment to get there anyway."

Yui simply shrugged with a goofy smile, then got inside the car.

Ritsu inserted the key into the ignition, and as she turned it, the dashboard came to life as normal. The main power gauge was full, and the secondary just above a third full.

"Well, Yui, here we go," The drummer said as she shifted the gear lever. "Buckle up."

The DeLorean eased out of its hiding place and headed back to the main road. Ritsu stopped at the intersection, looking both ways. A left turn would take them back to the certain town, but to the right there seemed to be a long, straight stretch of road.

"Yui, I think we could just do it here."

"Okay, Ricchan, I trust you," Yui said. She tried to sound calm, but it was clear to Ritsu the brunette's feet were definitely getting cold.

Ritsu stared intently at what she now knew to be the time travel controls. The green display was showing 'May 6, 1996 16:54', and the red one was currently off.

"When should we go back to?"

"I don't know, Ricchan… the time we left?"

Ritsu went into thought for a moment. She tried to remember what they were doing just before they left, and then a thought occurred to her.

_Yes, it's perfect!_

"Hey Yui… do you mind if we go back a little earlier?"

The guitarist looked at Ritsu, one eyebrow raised.

"Huh? No, Ricchan, but why?"

"You'll see."

_It'll take us about 45 minutes to get back… _

Ritsu reached for the keypad. After she input some numbers, the red display finally awoke, showing the date 'January 15, 2010 13:30'.

_Okay, here we go!_

Ritsu pulled the DeLorean onto the main road and lined it up. When the vehicle was at a halt, the drummer took a single deep breath.

"Ready, Yui?" she asked one last time.

"Ready!" the guitarist confirmed, frowning determinedly.

Grabbing the transmission lever, Ritsu set it into the dreaded TS position, and the warning beep went off as before. She gripped the steering wheel tightly and, gathering her courage, released the brake. And the car ploughed instantly forward.


	9. Their Time Spent Together

**Chapter 9 – Their Time Spent Together – Epilogue**

Ritsu sensed Yui's hands were clenching the edges of her seat as the speedometer neared 120 kilometers per hour. A moment later, the drummer was blinded by a sudden, brilliant flash of light.

Trained by her first trip, Ritsu knew to press on the brake immediately after the glare hit her. She held the wheel steady as her vision came back, and by that time the car had already slowed to about 50. Right as the road was about to curve, it came to a stop.

Both girls turned their attention to the landscape outside the car. The scenery had definitely changed. The once lush green grass around the road had turned to dull brown, and any nearby trees were completely unrecognizable due to having lost their cover. The sky was clear blue, with only a stray cloud to be seen if one looked really hard for it, and the atmosphere seemed extremely dry. It was January 15, 2010, just as Yui and Ritsu had remembered it.

Not wanting to waste any more time admiring her surroundings, Ritsu glanced at the dashboard, and then quickly shifted the car into neutral.

"Come on Yui, the car is dead now," she directed. "We have to get it off the road!" The guitarist nodded in response.

No sooner than Ritsu had opened the door than she wished she had put her coat on first, as she was chilled by the unforgiving cold of the winter.

Ritsu looked at Yui, who was still inside.

"Get into the driver's seat, grab the wheel, and steer the car toward the roadside. I'll push. Can we do that?"

"Yes, captain!"

Yui unbuckled and awkwardly moved herself into the driver seat. As she grabbed the steering wheel, the guitarist's lips curved down and she began staring intently forward.

"Yui… what are you doing?"

"Focusing, captain! This is important!"

Ritsu laughed softly as she quickly ran for the rear of the vehicle, leaving the door open. Just as she was about to start pushing, she could have sworn she heard someone yelling.

"Oi! Hold on, I'll give you a hand!"

The drummer turned in surprise. Jogging towards her was a woman in a black jacket and a matching dress, her brown hair extending just below her waist. A pair of rimless spectacles adorned her face.

"Sawa-chan!" Ritsu yelled in delight.

"Jeez, I really should have asked you for a more precise time," the teacher grumbled. "I've been waiting here since noon, and I had to lie to the principal so he'd let me off early! I was starting to wonder if you were actually going to show up!"

Yui leaned out of the vehicle when she heard Ritsu talking to somebody. Her face instantly lit up when she saw who it was.

"Sawa-chan! You came to meet us!"

"Of course I did! Somebody had to make sure you didn't get into any more trouble. This thing's dead now, though… right? Let's get it off the road before someone comes by."

The teacher joined Ritsu as they pushed against the cold metal of the DeLorean's body. Yui's hands latched onto the wheel as the car started sliding slowly forward.

"Yui!" Ritsu yelled to her. "Turn the wheel left and hold it there!"

"Huh? Okay!" The guitarist responded, quickly spinning the control as far left as it would go, managing to overcome the resistance it offered in the vehicle's powerless state.

When the car's front was all the way off the road, Ritsu yelled again.

"Now all the way right until the car's straight, then release it!"

With Yui steering and the other two pushing, the DeLorean was quickly moved to the dead grass next to the road. Ritsu and Sawako leaned against it, breathing heavily, and then moved over to the right side of the car to Yui, who had just stepped out.

"Ricchan, this is fun! I want to learn how to drive!"

"You have to be eighteen for that, Yui."

The guitarist pouted in disappointment, mostly because Ritsu more or less did know how to drive and she wasn't eighteen at all.

"Well, now that we've been reunited, let me tell you why I came here," Sawako informed them. "You two have to leave this thing behind. I'll drive you back. My car's just over there."

The two younger girls looked at their teacher in shock.

"Just leave it behind?" Ritsu wanted to confirm.

"Yes," the teacher declared, a determined look in her eye. "Didn't you see what sort of trouble it got you in? Time travel is way too dangerous to be played around with. I know that leaving something like this car behind seems hard − I've been having second thoughts myself, honestly − but we don't have a choice in this matter."

Yui and Ritsu looked at each other uncertainly for a few moments, but then they both nodded.

"You're right, Sawa-chan." Yui said.

"So what do we do with it?" Ritsu asked.

"I've been over to the kidnappers' garage while waiting for you two. The place is deader than a doornail; I think nobody's set foot in there since the police raided it that day."

The spectacled woman pointed to the forest behind them.

"We can put it in there and take the key with us. Now, how long does it take for it to start working again?"

"I don't know Sawa-chan… we left it alone for hours last time;" Ritsu reminded her.

"Well then, we'll just have to wait for it. Now let me in there before my lip gloss freezes!"

Sawako got into the driver seat and closed the door behind her, causing Yui and Ritsu to shrug at each other before they both scrambled for the passenger seat.

It took the main battery another twenty minutes to charge back up to a quarter-full state, and Sawako decided that this would be enough to get the car to the garage.

"Ritsu, give me the key," she ordered.

"It's in the ignition, Sawa-chan."

"Oh, right!"

The teacher turned the DeLorean slowly around before driving it back onto the road. She took it through the forest passage and to the garage. The ramshackle building appeared much more worn down than the last time Yui and Ritsu had seen it. Sawako's red Toyota was also parked there.

"The entrance is unlocked," Sawako said as she stepped out and towards the front door. "I'll go open the garage door, Ritsu. You get the car inside."

Ritsu jumped out of her spot next to Yui and into her old seat. Sawako took a minute, but then the garage door rolled upward. The kidnappers' station wagon was gone, no doubt confiscated by the police, and the inside contained little other than some auto mechanic tools. The hairbandless drummer stared at the inside for a minute before Sawako got impatient and started waving for her to finally get the car inside.

Once the vehicle was safely in, Ritsu looked at the dashboard one last time. The secondary battery gauge read just under a third of capacity. There was definitely enough power for another trip.

She decided not to think about it, and pulled the key out of the ignition.

Yui and she quickly gathered all of their things, and then got out. As they approached Sawako, Yui handed her an archaic looking cell phone.

"Here Sawa-chan, you forgot this!"

The woman frowned at the device as she took it out of Yui's hand.

"My parents gave me hell for losing this. Why didn't I remember to get it back?"

Ritsu gave her a mocking grin.

"Jeez, Sawa-chan, you're hopeless!"

The teacher raised her hands as if to grab the drummer by the neck, but seemed to give up on the idea at the last moment.

"Forget about it. Come on, let's go home!"

Yui and Ritsu were more than eager. The three of them shut the garage door behind them before piling into Sawako's car, with the two younger girls in the back together. The teacher took her vehicle back to the main road and turned in the direction of the certain town. It was a quiet ride back, with everyone seemingly content to put the whole ordeal behind them.

It had been a long fourteen years for Sawako, waiting for this day. On the first day of the millennium, she had bought a calendar, on which she changed the year to 2010 and circled the 15th of January in three different colors. It had been hanging in her residence ever since.

When a road sign finally appeared, marking the entrance to the certain town, Ritsu glanced at the clock. It was showing 15:04.

_Perfect, _the drummer thought, before speaking up.

"Sawa-chan, could you drop us off in front of the school?"

"Huh? Is that a good idea? I think the other two of you may still be there. When did you leave? I don't think it would be very good if you ran into yourselves…"

"Oh, yeah, you're right… we didn't disappear until after sixteen something," Ritsu remembered. "We'll be careful, Sawa-chan. Please, there's something I really need to do."

Hearing the pleading in Ritsu's voice, the teacher gave in.

Sawako took a fairly straightforward route to Sakura High consisting of two right turns. Once there, she stopped the car near the front gate.

"Here we are. I don't know what you have in mind, but be careful. You mustn't be seen by your other selves. I have to run now before the principal sees me. I told him I'd be out of town for the whole day."

"Thanks again Sawa-chan, for everything. We'll see you at school on Monday!" Ritsu said.

She and Yui exited the vehicle, and Sawako drove off. The drummer grabbed Yui by the hand and led her to the other side of the road, away from the gate.

"Ricchan, what are we doing?" Yui asked, still oblivious to Ritsu's plans.

"There's someone I have to talk to, Yui. I think they'll be here any minute now."

Ritsu dug out her cell phone. The battery on it was dying, but the device's clock had synced up with the cell phone network, which once again actually existed. It was 15:12.

She was correct. In just a few minutes, all five members of Afterschool Teatime appeared across the road. The sight of themselves was surreal to the two girls: a strange mix of déjà vu and looking into a mirror, but not quite like either. The band quickly dispersed without many words, and only the other Ritsu was left standing at the gate, with the other Yui walking slowly in the direction of her home before finally stopping and turning around.

"Okay, now, let's go."

Yui followed Ritsu down the walkway, to an intersection. A crosswalk connected this side of the road to the other here. It was there that Mio, now grown up again, seemed to be saying goodbye to Mugi.

Since there was little traffic, the bassist ran for the other side of the road, but when she saw who was waiting for her there, she slowed down with a puzzled expression.

"Yui? Ritsu?"

Mio appeared to be taken by surprise when she noticed the state the two were in. The bassist peppered the two with questions.

"What happened to you two? Why are you covered in bruises? Ritsu, where did you get those stitches? What happened to your headband? I don't get it…I just saw you a minute ago, and you were fine! What is all this?"

Her eyes focused on Ritsu.

"Wait… I've seen you like this before… it was…"

Mio's hands covered her mouth as she started trembling. A hint of tears was visible in her eyes. She looked nearly identical to her four-year old self back on the night when these same two girls had climbed up into her room.

"R-Ritsu… I-I… How?"

"It's a long story, Mio. Can we go to a café? I'll explain everything."

Mio was overwhelmed. It was literally like being taken back to that night.

After she visited her rescuer in the hospital, she had never seen her again. The girl had disappeared on that day, but the very next day, Mio had met a girl her age at her new kindergarten who had the same name. This girl wore a headband, something that the girl who rescued her never did, but she could still see the resemblance.

Mio would become inseparable from this girl who was the namesake of her rescuer, and with every passing year, her friend would resemble the girl who had disappeared more and more. Mio could not explain this. At first, she thought that the other Ritsu could have been her friend's mother, but soon she met Ritsu's actual mother and had to abandon that thought.

Mio never said anything to the Ritsu she grew up with. It seemed impossible, and she figured her friend would simply ridicule her if she brought up the subject.

Seeing that the bassist would not be able to regain her composure easily, Yui took one of her hands.

"Mio-chan, everything is okay. Nobody is in danger. We'll tell you what happened, okay? Just come with us."

The uncanny calming effect that Yui had on other people had manifested again. With the guitarist's smiling face in front of her, Mio managed to calm, and it left her with a feeling of wanting to know what had actually happened all those years ago.

She agreed to go with Yui and Ritsu, and the three made their way to the first coffee shop they could find. They took seats at the most secluded table there, and after they ordered drinks, Ritsu proceeded to retell everything that had happened to her and Yui over the past 72 hours. As the drummer was recounting the events, a weight appeared in her chest again, she realized again that most, if not all, of it was her fault. She had gotten her best friend into what was probably the most traumatizing situation of the other girl's life, and she realized how lucky it was that Mio was fine after it. By the end of the story, Ritsu was crying.

"M-Mio… I-I'm so sorry… I'm always causing trouble for you, but this takes the cake… It's amazing that what happened there didn't leave you traumatized forever… Y-You'll probably never forgive me now…"

She covered her eyes with her hands, her words punctuated by her sobs.

Mio was feeling none of that, though. She was happy. Finally, fourteen years later, everything made perfect sense, and she also learned just what lengths Ritsu was ready to go for her. Sure, the drummer was reckless and prone to poor judgment, but Mio was now once and for all certain that Ritsu would always make up for whatever she did wrong.

With a smile on her face, Mio stroked her friend's hair. Ritsu turned to her, and once she had the drummer's attention, Mio spoke.

"Ritsu, do you know why I was okay after that day?"

"N-No…"

"Because I believed, that no matter what happened to me, the selfless girl who rescued me once would come back and help me again. After all these years, I was starting to wonder if she actually still existed, but now I know that she's been with me every day since then. So thank you, Ritsu, for always being there for me."

Ritsu was in disbelief at how easily, at least in her opinion, she was forgiven. She laughed through tears, before pulling Mio into a tight hug, which the bassist instantly returned as if she had been anticipating it.

Yui observed her two friends. Their making up was a wonderful sight. The guitarist had suspected it would end like this ever since the fight. She just never thought she and Ritsu would have to go through so much before getting to this point. Yui couldn't contain her joy; she had to tell someone. Grabbing her cell phone, she saw that its battery was barely clinging to life, but she didn't care. She opened her contact list and landed on the name 'Azunyan'.

Yui pressed the phone against her ear, and almost instantly the meek voice of her friend sounded to her.

"Hello? Yui-senpai?"

"Azunyan!" Yui chirped to her fellow guitarist. "Guess what? Mio-chan and Ricchan just made up! Everything will be fine tomorrow!"

"Did Mio-senpai just forgive her again?" Azusa grumbled. "Jeez! She'll never change if that keeps happening!"

"No Azunyan, it's not like that! I'll tell you about it tomorrow, okay? Could you call Mugi-chan for me? I don't think my phone will last much longer!"

"Huh? Sure Yui-senpai, but wha-"

Azusa's voice was cut off as Yui's phone battery finally gave out; the display was blank as Yui lowered it. The guitarist wasn't annoyed. She'd managed to say everything she wanted. Content, she snapped the phone shut.

After they finished their drinks, the three girls exited the establishment.

"We have to go now, Mio," the drummer said. "Ui will be expecting us back soon. I'm sorry again that I forgot about your birthday, okay? I'm going to do my best to be more responsible starting tomorrow, I promise. That meet-up's still on, right?"

"Of course," the bassist nodded as she turned to head for home. "I'll see both of you then."

"Bye, Mio-chan!" Yui waved after her.

"I still have to go talk to her mother about this, too," Ritsu mused as she watched Mio walk away. "I promised her I would all those years ago, after all. Come on now, Yui, we don't want to worry your sister."

Finally, after all that time, Yui and Ritsu managed to do what they had planned. They found their way to the mall, and in a bout of sentimentality, Ritsu got Mio a clock. She thought it could symbolize their time spent together. Yui thought it was a very sweet gesture.

On their way back, they stopped at the store Yui had mentioned to get rice for Ui. Climbing the hill that led up to Yui's neighborhood, they found rough skid marks on the road. They guessed it was from the truck they almost ran into. It didn't look like the truck itself hit anything, and presumably it just drove off. They wondered how the driver would convince himself that he hadn't gone mental after what happened though.

As they made it back, Yui felt great relief to see that her home once again existed. They ran swiftly inside to get out of the winter cold, and Yui glomped her little sister as soon as she laid eyes on her.

"Ui!"

Even with knowing how affectionate her sister was, Ui did not expect this after a simple store trip.

"Onee-chan, take it easy. What's the matter?"

Then she noticed that Yui was covered in bruises, and Ritsu looked even worse.

"Oh no, what happened to you two? Did somebody attack you?"

Ui was thus the second person to be frightened by the sudden appearance of injuries on the two girls, but Yui assured her sister that they were okay. They decided Ui could be trusted, and told her the story as they ate the dinner that she had made for the three of them. The younger girl listened intently, hardly finding time to eat her food.

"Ritsu-san… t-that's incredible," the younger sister said, clearly amazed. "I-I had no idea that time travel was possible, or that you two were capable of such heroics!"

"Well… it was really Ricchan who did everything," Yui admitted self-consciously.

"That's nonsense, Yui," Ritsu insisted. "I would've crumbled in a minute if you weren't there with me."

"So… what's going to happen to the time machine?" Ui asked.

The drummer produced the key to the vehicle from the pocket of her uniform and looked at it speculatively.

"I really don't know… I guess it will stay hidden in that garage forever…"

"Where did it even come from, do you know?" the ponytailed girl inquired further.

"We don't, Ui… I was wondering that too." Yui responded.

"It's probably better that we don't," Ritsu concluded. "We should just forget about it as soon as we can."

They finished their dinner, and as Ui was taking the dishes to the kitchen, Ritsu turned to Yui.

"Hey Yui… would it be okay if I stayed here for the night?"

Yui seemed delighted at the prospect. She looked questioningly at Ui, who nodded with a smile, and then back to the drummer.

"Sure, Ricchan! We'd love to have you!"

"Just call your parents and tell them you're here," Ui added.

Ritsu did so, and her parents agreed to it.

"Yui, during the last few days I came to realize what a great friend you really were. If I had never met you, there would have been an enormous void inside of me."

Yui returned the affection as best as she knew, with an embrace.

"You're a great friend, too, Ricchan! You bring a lot of excitement to all of our lives!"

The two of them held the embrace for many more moments before finally releasing and moving back to the living room couch, the place where their adventure began. They sat there and enjoyed each other's company, knowing that tomorrow they would be going to Mio's birthday celebration together.

That night, lying in Yui's room, the two had one last conversation.

"Yui, you think Mugi and Azusa will be able to handle this when we tell them tomorrow?"

The guitarist peeked at Ritsu from under her covers, regarding the drummer as she lay on the futon on the floor next to her bed.

"I think they will, Ricchan, but I was wondering… why didn't you tell anyone what happened with my memories?"

"I didn't want to worry them. Do you have any idea why you have this ability?"

"No idea, Ricchan." Yui admitted. "Maybe other people have it too?"

"I don't know about that, but imagine if you didn't have it. We never would've had any idea how the future had changed and we probably would have just gone back to it, if we managed to get back at all. You really saved us there Yui, all five of us. Nothing good I did would have been possible without you."

The guitarist smiled at her friend.

"Thanks, Ricchan…"

"And don't let it worry you. It helped us this one time, and I hope you never have to use it again."

"I hope so too, Ricchan. Good night."

"Good night, Yui."

**FIN**

_**Ample Author Afterword**_

Well, there you have it, this is my first story that I myself don't consider to be _complete_ rubbish. Many shortcomings are present in it, and I'd like to have done some things differently, but overall I'm happy with it, all things considered.

The story began as a thought of mine about the relationship between Yui and Ritsu, which was present in canon, but seemed to leave a lot unexplored. This was my attempt to give it a bit more of an in-depth look, and hopefully I've done both characters justice. The decision to make it a sci-fi story came from the lack of presence of this genre in the K-On section of FFN, but in the end the manifestation of it was minimal, and it only served to set up the plot. The mechanic of time travel is a risky one to use in a story, perhaps not at all fit to be used in one's first coherent attempt at literature, and with many opportunities to have things just plainly not make sense. In the end it is impossible for everything to make perfect sense in a time travel story, mostly due to the impossibility of it in reality and the immense paradoxicality of the concept. Every time travel story, including the greatest inspiration for this one, Back to the Future, is full of things that could be nitpicked about, but I hope that this story kept things simple and consistent enough for people to be able to follow it.

Some thank-yous are in order now. First and foremost I have to thank Tastychainsaws (the fuckawesome guy who inserts parentheses that the author hopefully won't catch, heheheheh) who inspired me to attempt such an endeavor in the first place as well as helped along the way, and who is evidently such an attention-seeking twat that he would try to edit this afterword behind my back. After him thanks go to the duo of Genki Collective and Musician74, both of whom have likewise provided helpful feedback and encouragement, and the former even joining my beta team near the end of the story. Finally, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to read this story, I hope I managed to entertain you a little.

In conclusion, I'd like to inform everyone whom it may concern that this is not the end of The Temporal Axis as a complete story. This was merely the first arc; a second one will follow it sometime in the future and hopefully be much better planned out and written than this one was.

So, until then.


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